,

APRIL

1967

25

"THINGS KEEP GETTING

CURIOSER AND CURIOSER"

CONTENTS

EDITOR David Harris MANAGING EDITOR Greg Shaw ART DIRECTOR Geoff Evans The MOJO-NAVIGATOR ROCK & ROLL NEWS is published monthly by the Mojo Publishing com-, pany, 1450 Che stnut St; , San Francisco, Calif. 94123. Subscri~tions: $2.50 for 12 issues. Sub s c r i be r s please notify the MOJO-NAVIGAT- ... or of any change of address. The editorial contents have not been published before. We cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. Any material submitted must be accompanied by return postage. Adve r t i s in ; rates available on request.

The Mojo-Navigator Rock is a member of the Press Syndicate (UPS). reviews, soon as pos-

and photos. sible.

.SOMETHING'S HAPPENING HERE .. The past year has seen an amazing growth in rock & roll, not only in popularity but in the quality of the music itself. Recording companies have drastically changed their policy regarding rock groups, and a band now can put just about anything they want on their records, no matter how far-out it may be. We are at the point now where virtually every group in existence, even those formed only within the past month or so, have recording contracts. In shor t , it's becoming a field day for rock musicians, and the situation show s every sign of continued escalation in the corning year .There are a lot of interesting side effects of this trend, of which this magazine is one. The idea of serious rock criticism is an extremely new innovati~n. Rock publications have traditionally been teeny-bop oriented, and rec.or d reviewers have ignored rock records. Now all the reviewers follow the rock field closely, periodicals such as the Sunday Ramparts have a regul a r rock columnist, and there are at least two new magazines devoted to the study of rock music. The first to appear was CRAWDADDYl, published by Paul Williams of Boston. CRAWDADDYl takes a very dry, scholarlyapprc:ach to the whole thing, is based primarily on record reviews which are occasionally good but usually bullshit (liThe spoken line at the end of the "B'" figure is the most conspicuous innovation in the entire work. It borders on a voc al, style used by Arnold Schoenberg in Pierrot Lunaire, in which a soprano speaks the text, following in exaggerated high and low pitches a printed line of music. This refers to a recent Supreme s record, which they say is the best single record to appear in this country in the last two or three years.). The magazine shows almost no awareness of what is happening i n Tiv e rock & r 011, w h i chi s the most important aspect of the new rock movement, bas in g their expoundings entirely on recorded rock, which is still a good deal behind the latest development s. The MOJO-NAVIGATOR, begun in August 1966 as a small mimeographed newsletter covering the scene in San Francisco, has TON reached the level of a national publication, and we hope to temper our own scholarly analysis with some of the mood of the times, the 'happening' spirit of the whole rock scene. We also hope to avoid, as much as pos sible, the ~ of bullshit that is going down all around us.
II

For yet another rn ari if e station of rock & roll's new popularity is the gr eat quantity of meaningles s drivel that is being printed and spoken by all sorts of people who claim to know something or are t .. ying to convince people they do. Just about every major magazine and newspaper in the country has had it s story on the 'psychedelic happenings' and the wild hippies and the bands with the weird names. Editors in their offices puff on their pipes and expound on "a.c i d rock' while the musicians in question mutter in disgust and drink their ;?;inar..d tonic. Thousands of Bay Area teenyboppers read Ralph Gleason four t irn e s a week and think he is saying something new and exciting. Mills College in Oa kl an d is having a three day Rock & Roll Conference with such e veots MOJO-NAVIGATOR
l _

- 4

(continued

on page 11)

THE WHO L E LEG END about him starting out at 17, taking the epitaphfrom his father's tombstone in Long Island: "To Know Him, Is To Love Him" and using it as the tit 1e of his song with the Teddy Bearsa No.1 record in 1958 - it's a 11 true you know and Phil's playin g guitar on it, with the other guy and a chick singing and "where are they now", etc. and Spect or's gotacrewcut; with the thick, ,white knitted wool cardigan with the big call a r in back, you know, and th e floppy, pleated black slacks, with white bucks. The record makes $20, 000 but he and the Teddy Be a r s end up with only $3, 000 of it. By 1960 he's writing and producing r ec ords for a th era r tis t sand c orn o-> anies: "Spanish Harlem" by Be n E. King, "Be My Boy" by the Paris Si s ters from Lincoln High School, Ray Petersen, and others not really worth mentioning. 1962 and he's going out on his a wn now with his own publishing corn p a ny, Mother Bertha Productions, n a me d after his mother, Bertha, who wo rks as a cleanup woman around the office; and his own label, named af t e r himself, Philles. And he starts with these 5 spade chicks from high school in Brooklyn, the old R 'n B thing, and I don';t know how they got together or MOJO-NAVIGATOR - 5

how he ran into them - did he hear' some tapes or did somebody tell Spector about them? I don't know, anyway it's the Crystals, young teenage Negro chicks from Brooklyn with good, great voices and their 1959 Junior Prom dresses on and Spector's persuaded the mf;o record, you know, he's probab 1y given them a very lousy contract, and they're in Mirasound Studi 03 in New York, standing in front of the microphones and Jack Nitz scbe, a fantastic arranger,is telling them what's going to take place; Larry Levine, Spector's engineer, is setting up and balancing everything and there's Phil, telling them what to do; "just sing, I'll do the rest" and he's going nuts with the dials and the controls in the booth and they're just standing around,knocked out, the Crystals, wonder in g what's next, what's it finally going to end up like (the whole thing) and they think he's kinda weird, you know, but they like him, the y think he's funny - and they know, he's srria r t so what happens? They produce 7 great hits together: "There's No Other (Like My Baby)" #100, an old 50's type R&I3 ballad thing, very nice, very smooth; "Uptown" #102, the s ocia i cornrrentary, writ ten by Barry Mann and Cynth:ia Weill, with castanets and eve rything, all about tenement life;

"He.Hit Me (And It Felt Like AKiss)" #lO5, they're starting to getinto their own thing now - "He s A Rebel II #lO6, written by Gene Pitney, strangel y enough, and no doubt inspired by Spector h irn s eIf , And! then came 3 powerhouse, blockbusting, driving, continuously-going, never letting-down, symphonic orchestral rock extravaganzas, and this is the Crystals, their own thing: "He~Sure the Boy lLove"#l09, "Th. Doo Ron Ron (When He Walked Me Home)" #1l2, and "Then He Kissed Me" #1l5 - fantastic records: tympanis, double pianos, saxe s, everything. Spector's really into it now, he's got his own thing and the whole indus t r knows it - nobody's ever done thi s kind of thing before -- and 1963 is his year, the Spector Sound, and he just can't seem to miss. Besides the Crystals he's picking up other people, probably for nothing,! and developing records out of them too: Bobb B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans with "Zip-A- DeeDoo-Dah" #lO7, "Not Too Young To Get Married" #1l3, and "Why Do Lov . ers Break Each Other's Hearts" #1l0 The Alley Cats with "Puddin' In Tain" #108 - another girl group, with th e spade -Puerto Rican teenage whore image, the Ronettes, who corne on verybig with the great "Be My Baby" #1l6, "Baby I Love You" #1l8 - Darlene Love, later lead singer of the Blossoms, the vocal backup group on "Shi.ndrg", with a tremendous voice: "Today I Met the Boy I'm Gonna Marry" #lll, a beautiful, nostalgic record, "Wait 'Til My Bobby Gets Home" #114 and a minor hit "A Fine Fine Boy" #1l7. He Is being called "the teenage t Y> coon", the genius of the recording industry, David Susskind grabs him for an appearance on his show "Open End" and a discus sion of "pop" music then and now, and Spector Comes on very strong - open and frank, he's putting down William B. Williams, an eaiylistening type music disc jockey fa 0 1 who's saying how great 1940 music was, and Susskind, who tries to come on liberal but is full of crap, is telt

PHIL

SPEC TOR

ling Fh il that the words to his songs c:re meaningless and uninte Il igible eso what? listen to the sound! and Spector just sits there, chewin g his nails, fidgeting in his seat, putting them down, very out r i ght and openly, great. He goes to England, meets the Stones and Andrew Loog Oldham, who is a great admirer of his and has picked up a lot from Spector, plays and screws a r ourid in the studio with them and he and Nitzsche get on a couple of the tracks on the Stone s I fir st albums. Again on TV, the Me rv Griffin show, Spector's telling the whole au die nc e what fools they are and the audience is liooing him and oh, straight-ass Merv just 10ves this, controversy! rubbing his hands, goading Spector into more hassles until, exasperated, Phil pulls out a little capsule, show s . it to Merv and tells him he oughta try it and then he 'd really see where things are at; and even though there probably isn It any acid in it, Spector gets his mes sage across, showing the capsule on camera in front of everybody and Merv almost faints - "--uh, uh, it's time for a commercial now."

And then -somehow, for some reason, inevitably I guess - the CIystals don't seem to be making it, any more: two more good r e cords "Little Boy" #119, and "All Grown Up" #122, are released but don't get played - and the poor Crystals, what' of them? is that it I guess, huh? and what, did he probably tell them "it's too bad, I guess it's over, they're net buying your sound anymore" and give them some halfway reasonable excuse why they weren't making it any more, .and they probably didn't get beans rot of it either - and after all those beautifulrecords man! What do they do now, besides being forgotten -, do they work in department stores, still - remembering those times in the studio, the excitement they were a part of, the excitem-ent they were making, how' big they were, how much bigger they could've been, they should've been, because they were really great. - and they realize they're never goiq; to be up the re again, that they had their chance, that that was it and it' s .ove r now - and it's really too bad. Meanwhile Spector is starting to click again: after 2 flops by the Ronettes"Breakin' Up" #120 and l1flo I Love You" #121, they come up with a huge hit, #123, "Walking In the Rain" complete with sound effects. Somehow he also acquires the Righteous Brothers, who at th.a t t irn e were recording for Moonglow, a small Hollywood labelsubsidiary of Atco-Atlantic.and Spector puts together a fantastic record for them, 11 You 've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" #124, a really power-

"Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" written by Spector, Jef f Barry and Ellie Greenwich, which is a tremendous fat, thick-with-soundgreat classical grand piano li n e s coming in at the end - record. ' In 1965 Spector pro d u c e d th e "T', N. T. 11show, which was supposed to be another "T, A. M. 1. 11 showthat electronovision, rock sh 0 w movie, and you would have thought, you know, that with the stars he had to work with: Ray Charles, the Lovin' Spoonful, Bo Diddley, Petula Clark, Joan Baez, Donovan, the Ronettes, the Byrds, Ike and Tina Turner, Roger Miller, and David McCallum as M. C. for the te enyb opper s, ,- that it would have been a great show - but it wasn't, it just didn't come off - really a letdown. The whole production seemed awk war d - the sound for the Spoonful was very bad, the Byrds looked like they we re just doing a job for 10 minute s, th e audience was very dead and the whde thing took place in an atmosphere of no excitement at all, nothing like there was in the great liT. AM I. II show with James Brown and the Stones, among others. . Back to the recording, and the only thing which seemed to be making it for him anymore was the Rigateous Brothers with their big productions of old standards, whi c h were a drag - very thin, not much at all - just some tremendous orchestra backing up a pseudo-spare rendition of an old favorite: "Uncha ine d Melody" #129, and !IEbb Tide" #130; these 2 records were preceeded by "In her shack at the mudflats Indian a copy of "You+ve Lost That Lov in ' Jenny is writing a letter to the pubFeelin'": "Just Once In My Life II lishers of Classic Comics, wonder#127. Around this time also, Specing if they put out an illustrated edtor released another record on a ition of the Tibetan Book of theDead. 11 subsidiary label which he had formed, ful thing. And sin c e it's around Phi-Dan, named after himself and Christmas, Phil decides to do so me Dan Davis, his right hand and promoChristmas records - "Winter Wontion man: IILand of the F re e, Home de r Larid " #125 by Darlene Love, who of the Brave" by Bonnie and the Tregives a great rendition of this old asures. This record really bombed, standard, becomes a fair-sized hit, and even Spector himself said it was but man, nobody notices the backside: MOJO-NAVIGATOR - 7

pretty bad. It was pretty corny, you know, the story about the rebel in school with the long hair and fu n n y clothe s , and the teache r s and the P. . T. A. don't like him, and the othe r -k id s in class are always beating up on him; v~ry elementary but it did have some good things about it: a real uplifting, head-held-high marching, staunchness of heart feeling, sort of like "John Brown's Body", 1 liked it. The record was written about Spector by Barry Mann a nd :Cynthia Weill - great teen-idi 0m lyricists - it got played a few t irne s 'but didn't move at all, then Jody Miller covered it on Capitol and it sold a little. It'a 1966 now for Spector. As a conclusion to this article and what may be, unfortunately, a conclusion to his career as a record producer, comes Phil with Ike and Tina Turner _ their raw vocals and gufsy R 'ri B sound combined with his sophisticated all-encompas sing powerh 0 use instrumentation and production and a fantastic climax it is for Spector and his fantastic career out comes "River Deep - MountainHigh" #131 'by Ike and Tina; a record which wasn't even played here - only a few times on KLIV in San Jose, and that shows you how really screwed up radio stations are - not one is independent enough to play' any record that isn't programmed for their format or that doesn't have some big promo campaign behind it. The record got to No. 4 in England on the strength of Paul McCartney saying how much he dug it; it should have been No. 1 here, easily. The record is really too much I've already used up most of the adjectives describing his other records so I'll go into this one in some depth. The record is unbelievablerows of brass and horns blaring out little riffs that are mixed down into the background, not coming out rruc h but neve rthele s s contributing greatMOJO-NAVIGATOR -

ly to the ove r al lJ'b lu r " sound of all' Spector's productions; soaring violins, a tremendously low bass line brought out greatly, t rumpet s , f rerc h horn, fuzz guitar, baritone saxe s , a line of violins throughout, a very subdued chorus line mixed down to sound like instruments way in the background - tremendous walls and hills of sound, going down and bu:il.ding up again - surging to climaxes, great encompassing blurs of sound - and then the breaks - rn a r ac ha s , bass, grand piano and bongos on reverb off in the distance - and great vocal lines: "When you were a young b oy did you have a puppy that always followed you around? 11 beautiful! And Tina screaming out, build.:ing, rising to the climax: "Oh baybee! Oh baybee r 11 wow! An utterly fantastic, unbelievably enveloping crescendo of sound record. Buy it, listen to it on earphone s - you can imagine how that is. "River DeepMountain High" by Ike and Tina Turner, Philles #131 and also "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) #125 - both records ought to be blasted out over the sound system at the Avalon Ballroom dll;ring the breaks, over and over. The last I have heard of Spector is that after this sessionwithlkeand Tina, from which there was an album

Ii
IKE AND TINA TURNER

t:

made (about 7 new thing sand 5 old ones) and another single, which for some stupid reason are now in release only in England, Spector split to Mexico for awhile, came back, and is now directing a movie called "The Last Movie" with Bette Davis and Dennis Hopper, the latter helping finance it as well as starring in it. Spector says the movie "will undoubtedly win the Grand Award" at the Cannes Film Festival. Too much. MIKE DALY PHILLES DISC '-.-:-1:-; P.APH Y

SINGLES

100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110

111 112 113 114

ll5

"THERE'S NO OTHER (LIKE MY BABY)"/"OH YEAH, MA YBE BAB Y" JOLLY SCOTT- "HERE I STAND"/"YOU'RE MY ONLY LOVE" THE CRYSTALS- "UPTOWN"/"WHAT A NICE WAY TO TURN SEVENTEEN" AL HAZAN- "MALAGUENA"(instr. )/"CHOPS'TICKS" (instr.) ---"LIEUTENANT COLONEL BOGIE'S PARADE"(instr.)/ .-(NO ARTIST OR "B" SIDE LISTED, RECORD NEVER RELEASED) THE CRYSTALS- "HE HIT ME (AND IT FELT LIKE A KISS)"/"NO ONE EVER TELLS YOU" THE CR YSTALS- "HE'S A REBEL"/ "I LOVE YOU EDDIE" BOB B. SOXX and THE BLUE JEANS- "ZIP-A-DEE DO-DAH"/ "F LIP AND NITTY" (instr.) THE ALLEY CATS- "PUDDIN N' TAIN (ASK ME AGAIN I'LL TELL YOU THE SAME)"/"FEEL SO GOOD" THE CRYSTALS- "HE'S SURE TI"lE BOY I LOVE"/"WALKIN' ALONG (LA-LA-LA)" (instr. ) BOB B. SOXX and THE BLUE JEANS- "WHY DO LOVERS BREAK EACH OTHER'S HEARTS"/ "DR. KAPLAN'S OFFICE" DARLENE LOVE- "(TODAY I MET) THE BOY I'M GONNA MARRY"/ "PLAY ING FOR KEEPS" THE CRYSTALS- "DA DOO RON RON (WHEN HE WALKED ME HOME)" /"GIT' IT" (instr.) BOB B. SOXX and THE BLUE JEANS"NOT TOO YOUNG TO GET MARRIED" / "ANNETTE"(instr. ) DARLENE LOVE- "WAIT TIL' MY BOBBY GETS HO~-lE"/"TAKE IT FROM ME" THE CRYSTALS- "THEN HE KISSED ME"/"BROTHER JULIUS"(instr.) THE RONETTES- "BE MY BAB Y" / "TEDESCO AND PITMAN"(instr. ) DARLENE LOVE- "A FINE FINE BOY"/"NINO AND SONNY (BIG TROUBLE)" (instr. ) MOJO-NAVIGATOR - 9

THE CRYSTALS-

116
ll7

118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125

THE RONETTESTHE CRYSTALSTHE RONETTESTHE RONETTESTHE CRYSTALSTHE RONETTESTHE RIGHTEOUS

"BABY, I LOVE YOU"/"MISS JOAN AND MR. SAM" (instr. ) "LITTLE BOY"/"HARRY (FROM W. VA.) & MILT" (instr. ) "(THE BEST PART OF) BREAKIN' UP"/"BIG RED" (instr.) "DO I LOVE YOU? "/ "BEBE AND SUSU" (instr. ) "ALL GROWN UP"/"IRVING (JAGGERED SIXTEENTHS)" (instr.) "WALKING IN THE RAIN"/'fHOW DOES IT FEEL" BROTHERS-

126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134

"YOU'VE LOST THAT LOVIN' FEELIN' "/"THERE'S A WOMAN" DARLENE LOVE- "CHRISTMAS (BABY, PLEASE COME HOME)"/ "WINTER WONDERL.AND" (NEW PRESSING OF THIS RECORD HAS "WINTER BLUES" (instr.) AS "B" SIDE) THE RONETTES"BORN TO BE TOGETHER" / "BLUES FOR BAB Y" (instr. ) THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS"JUST ONCE IN MY LIFE"/"THE BLUES" THE RONETTES"IS THIS WHAT I GET FOR LOVING YOU?"/"OH, I LOVE YOU" THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS"UNCHAINED MELODY" / "HUNG ON YOU" THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS"EBB TIDE"/"FOR SENTIMENTAL REASONS" IKE and TINA TURNER- "RIVER DEEP-MOUNTAIN HIGH"/"I'LL KEEP YOU HAPPY" THE RIGHTEOUS: BROTHERS"WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER"/"SHE'S MINE ALL MINE" THE RONETTES-, "I CAN HEAR MUSIC"/"WHEN I SAW YOU" IKE and TINA TURNER- "MAN IS A MAN IS A MAN" / "TWO TO TANGO"

ALBUMS
I

4000 4001 4002 4003 4004

THE CRYSTALS- "THE CRYSTALS TWIST UPTOWN" THE CR YSTALS- "HE'S A REBEL" BOB B. SOXX and THE BLUE JEANS- "ZIP-i}-DEE DO-DAH" THE CRYSTALS- "THE CRYSTALS SING THE GREATEST HITS" VARIOUS ARTISTS (THE CRYSTALS, THE RONETTES, DARLENE LOVE, BOB B. SOXX and THE BLUE JEANS, THE ALLEY CATS)"VARIOUS ARTISTS SING TODA Y'S HITS" VARIOUS ARTISTS (THE CRYSTALS, THE RONETTES, DARLENE LOVE, BOB B. SOXX and THE BLUE JEANS)- "A CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR YOU" (CHRISTMAS LP) THE RONETTES"THE FABULOUS RONETTES" THE RIGHT~OUS BROTHERS- "YOU'VE LOST THAT LOVIN' FEELIN' " THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS- "JUST ONCE IN MY LIFE" THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS- "BACK TO BACK" LENNY BRUCE- "LENNY BRUCE IS OUT AGAIN" - 10

4005

4006 4007 4008 4009 4010

MOJO-NAVIGATOR

PHI-DAN

5005

"HOME OF THE BRAVE"/"OUR SONG" 1 (1 M NOT POSITIVE BUT THIS (instr.) COULD BE THE RONETTES UNDER A PIFFElIlENT NAM.E)

BONNIE and THE TREASURES-

ON ALL THE PHILLES "A" SIDES CREDITS ARE AS FOLLOWS: PRODUC'ER-PHIL SPECTOR, ARRANGER-JACK "SPECS" NITZSCHE, ENGINEER:LARR Y LEVINE: (#133 WAS PRODUCED BY JEFF BARRY AND THE PHIDAN SINGLE WAS PRODUCED BY JERRY RIOPELL AND ARRANGED BY NICK DE CARO) ALL RECORDING WAS DONE AT EITHER MIRASOUND . STUDIOS IN NEW YORK OR GOLD STAR STUDIOS IN HOLLYWOOD. :YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED THAT A LOT OF THE "B" SIDES ARE IN,STRU:MENTALS, THESE ARE JUST LOUSY JAZZ-FLAVORED INSTRUMENTALS THAT SPECTOR THREW TOGETHER USING THE STUDIO MUSICIANS THAT WORKED WITH HIM: THE TITLES ON A LOT OF THEM REFER TO PEOPLE, SUCH AS #113 "ANNETTE" WHO WAS SPECTOR'S WIFE AT THE TIME; #116 "TEDESCO AND PITMAN", TWO OF THE STUDIO MUSICIANS; #117 "NINO AND SONNY", NINO TEMPO AND SONNY BONO WHO WERE J II SIDEMEN ON THE RECORDS AND #122 "IRVING (JAGGERED SIXTEENTHS) SO~E REFERENCE TO MICK JAGGER.

"Ls it the green in a phone booth that makes it turn to rubber?"

EDIT.9RIAL. continued

For a limited time only we are able to offer these fantastically rare collectors I items, priced to be sold, as long as our stock holds out. *#3 --$1.00 *#4 (Grateful Dead interview, part one) --$1.50 *#5 (Dead interview, conclusion) - -$1. 50 *#6 - -$. 50 *#7 --$.25 *#8 (Big Brother & the Holding Company interview) - -$. 50 *#10 (Mystery Trend interview) --$.50 *#11 (Country Joe & the Fish) - -$1. 00 *#12 (Mystery Trend & Fish interviews concluded, British Blues, part 1) --$.25 Don't hesitate! they last! Order now while

as Prof. James T. Carey from the U. C. Criminology Dept. speaking on "Dialogue of Involvement and NonInvolvement in Rock & Roll". Our reporter Mike Daly will cover the conference in next month I s is sue. Phil Spector and Chuck Berry will al ao be attending, so perhaps some,thing of value will go down. But it is very easy to be pompous and foolish in talking about rock, and it is a tra.p into which we will try very .ha rd not to fa.ll. We welcome your comments about this issue and about whatever aspects of rock music interest you. If response is forthcoming we will have a letter column in future issues. THE EDITORS Waenlt it Lincoln who said, change horses in the middle Ocean"? "Don't of the

MOJO-NAVIGATOR

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...

The 'Ge off (bass), Scala he Irn

Blues Ma goo s (top to bottom}: Daking (d rurn s}, Ronnie Gilbert Mike Esposito (lead), Ralph (organ) and Ern i l (Peppy) Thiel[r h ythrn},

MOJO: All right, the tape recorder's on. MIKE: Do n+t let us know it's on cause we get scared. We get paranoid. MOJO: All right, it's not really on. Now let's talk about your record RONNIE: Yeah, Voleread your review of it. So you liked "T'ob ac c o Road"? MOJO: Yeah, thought it was a gas. RONNIE: What'd you like about it? MOJO -NAVIGA TOR - 12

MOJO: I like the part where you <tarted to irrrpr ov i s e , RONNIE; Oh , the traffic j arn ? Have you listened to it on 33 yet? MOJO: Yeah. RONNIE: On 16? MOJO: No, we didn't get down to 16. PEPPY: You're talking about the a lbUITl ? MOJO: No, we've got the single. We had the single a long t irn e ago. I tliink the dj copy was better than the a Iburn cut. RONNIE: With a 4 1/2 rn irrut e record you lose a 10 t of pre s enc e , MOJO: I thought the a Iburri was rn ixed diffe rentl y.

RONNIE: Well, I'll tell you something. The album was cut in 2 studios, Also, part of it was cut when we first got together. As a matter of fact, "One By One" was cut the first day Geoff got into the group. And t h en of course we had to walk 57 blocks to the studio because there was a subway strike. Carrying our drums. And some of it was cut in a very small studio, about the size of this hotel room. MIKE: Mercury studios. RONNIE: And the rest of it was cut at Regent. So there's a lotof varia"To topple a bobby with rotten cabbage is as crackers as it is to petard and 'earl' up your lorry in a lift" tion in technique s , MOJO: I thought the album cohered pretty well. RONNIE: You didn't like the cover, huh? MOJO: I liked it. Some of it. It was an interesting idea. I think it would have b e en groovier without pictures. MIKE: Should we expose the original i~ea? The original idea for the cover was, what we were going to do was have my painting, you know, that's what the cover is, a blowup of part of my painting of a lollipop. And the lollipop in its entirety is::- very beautiful thing. And that was all it was going to be. There wasn't going to be any writing on it at all. MOJO: Oh, I see. That would've been good. RONNIE: We're dealing with half the populace, which knows nothing. GEOFF: So we had to take this big snappy color photo. RONNIE: Now the cover-- well, if you say you dig the light show, you should dig the cover. It's a very s im.iIa r thing. MOJO: It's better because it's more 'full. The trouble with the light sh ovs is that they're too GEOFF: Weak. MOJO: Many people have a bett e r light show going on in their heads than they have up on the wall.

GEOFF: These things aren't concerts and they're not dances either. If you stand in one corner of the room and look at the whole thing, everythi n g complements the other thing. The band complements the lights, the people appear as though they're swaying back and forth in the strobe light, and you're supposed to take it all in at once. It reminds me of a rally with all the people in the world getting in one room. It's like the Spanish-American War in one room, if -you could see it all at once. MOJO: Different sections of the audience don't associate with each otbe r, GEOFF: Yeah, I noticed that. Especially in the Fillmore. There's the people up front watching and then RONNIE: I noticed something else while I was there, too. That even in the disunity there was a lot of uni ty, It's not like s orn.ebody s going to punch someone else. GEOFF: Yeah, it looks like you couldn't start a fight there if you wanted to. MOJO: Yeah, it wouldn't be possible. GEOFF: Yeah, it's a groove. PEPPY: Looked like the cops were stoned. MIKE: What about the radio statims around here, do they play an important part? MOJO: Yeah, they ~lay a negative role. MIKE: That's what I thought. I ttzre d .in to a college station and hit three hours of electronic music. It was like Dylan with electro nic music over it, and the guy in the studio was screaming. It was really beautiful. MOJO: Yeah, that was probably KPF A. Around here the commercial. rock & roll stations are a drag. But there is a lot of good stuff happening on FM and it's only a matter of time before the big stations catch on that good music, is getting popular. MIKE: In the east the commercial stations are the trend setters. They
l

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are the ones that either make you or break you. MOJO: Around here they break you , automatically: MIKE: Around here the kids are there and the kids are listening because they haven't been initiated to the new thing . Once they become initiated the station starts to lose its ratings, one by one, as each kid switche s over to what we call the "scene". MOJO: How aid your band get together? MIKE: Ronnie, Ralph and Peppy were together originally with another drummer. That was about a year and a half, two years ago. PEPPY: Yeah, about two years ago. Then the guitarist left. MIKE: They played around their h~. town for awhile and then went to the city. And from then on they were in the Village. I was painting in Delaware and I went up to New York to buy a pair of boots. And I joined 'ern. I don't know how it happened. I still don't remember. Ijust went into the Night Owl because I used to work there at one time. I had quit a band a couple of years ago, that had played up the street from the Night Owl. And I'd just c orn e back after a year of painting, and I saw this band that said they needed a lead guitar. PEPPY: He couldn't even play chords then. He'd forgotten his chords, he hadn't played guitar in so long. MIKE: Jld been playing bass for aboir three years. I'd played bass so long I'd forgotten my guitar. And then the drummer started really copping out on us. So we got Geof, cause I knew him. And since then well, we got Bob and Art* and the Mercury contract, but it was mostly the Night Owl. What other clubs in the Village

*.Bob

Wyld and Art Polhemus, Longhai r Productions

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feature rock & roll be side s the Night Owl? MOJO: The Cafe Au Go Go MIKE: The Go Go is the blues place. They have big blues festivals, with John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters, the Blues Project, all in the same night. I get the impression that the younger groups from the Village haven't made much impact here at all. MOJO: The Blaies Project are popular out here. And then you're about second to them, and then nobody else. MIKE: Blues is big out here, isn't it? MOJO: Yeah, they have big blues festivals over in Berkeley. But of the Village groups that I know of, like the Strangers, the Fugitives, and the Magicians when they were together, none of those groups have made it .ar ound here. MIKE: The Strangers aren't really .toge the r either. They're just recording. They don't play any more. MOJO: What about the Fugitives? MIKE: They still play. All those gr oup s got screwed up by the Village. The Village is a really rough RONNIE: Just like they get screwed up a r ourid here. MIKE: It's hard to last there, it really is. You just have to go out of your mind after awhile. The same thing, night after night. There's no changes in the Village. There's no .scene out there, there's nothing that's happening. .RONNIE: It's a quiet scene, you've got to know a bout it. MIKE: Yeah, very quiet. It's a very 'in' thing, you know. It's not open to the public in Greenwich Village. RONNIE: For good reasons, too. MIKE: You walk down the street and there's nothing going on at all. RONNIE: It's all behind closed doors. PEPPY: On the weekends, though MIKE: On the weekends you hav efh e Sunset Strip scene. It's like 5, 000 kids and policemen on horses, herding them around like cattle. MOJO: That's the way it got in the Haight-Ashbury, but not for music.

MIKE: This isn't for music, either, it's just a meeting-place. RONNIE: All them Long Island ch icks come down, and they smoke in the basement and think, "Maybe I'll get busted. " MIKE: And they have Junkie Row in Washington Square Park. Where everybody sits. And on Sundays everybody that owns a guitar goes out there and plays. PEPPY: And you'll catch people turning on in the park, but it's not the people from the Village. MIKE: People that live in the Village are very much to themselves. They don't do anything for the sake of the public. They have their own lives, they have the East Village and the West Village. You have the artists on the east side and the musicians on the west side. RONNIE: That's what I liked a little bit more about the east coast than about the west coast. MIKE: The east coast is actually quieter. MOJO: That's the thing around here, people want action, loudness. PEPPY: But too much of it is going to screw up the whole thing. MIKE: It's getting national attention out here, and that's not what you want, really. There'll be a Life thing pretty soon on Avalon. Like, as soon as you have a centerpage thing in Life, you're through. MOJO: No, I disa gree, because there's a real audience for this music, al rrrost like a cult of thousands and thousands of people. The time is right for this thing to spread, to get nationwide attention. There I s no limit to how big this thing can get. MIKE: It's gonna be nationwide in 10 years, maybe five. It'll be one giant fraternity. You'd be surprised. You go into a town, and no matter how .small it is, say 300 people, you'll find a group of hippies. RONNIE: You go across country, you run into a lot of weird people.

MIKE: Right here you have the topless thing, that's the commercial branch-off of the LSD thing. MOJO: Yeah, that's' really catching on here. MIKE: Are the re any groups out here that really psych-out electronically? MOJO: Big B'r othe.r & the Holding Co.. The Oxford Circle. The Sparrow. MIKE: Do they have all kinds of gadgets, or what? MOJO: No, nobody uses the gadgetry. They're really fast out here, that's the emphasis. The guitar players are fast. MIKE: What about feedback? MOJO: Yeah, they use it a little bit. It's not so much feedback as the 'fastest guitar in town' bit. MIKE: I noticed that. Everybody tries to outdo each other. I went to the Matrix the other night and there was a guitar player sweating because there were about five other guitarists watching. They all have one fast run and they do it about a million times a night. It shouldn't be that way. It looks like a very friendly thing. On top it looks like "wow, they're really digging each other. " But it's not that at all. You can't get away from the envy thing; everybody out here is good musically, they concentrate on it. But they concentrate on it not to .be tte r themselves but to-be better than the next guy. MOJO: Yeah,' but there's a terrific amount of friendly jamming that goes on. MIKE: Are' the bands around here 'just interested in making it locally or nationally? MOJO: Many of them don't particularly care about national. MIKE: That's what I thought. They just want to play. You see, it's an entirely different thing in New York. You've got the Night Owl which is like a contract" workshop. The ban ds go in there and they play until they get a contract. Cause there's always MOJO-NAVIGATOR - 15

people coming down to watch, and see who's there. You'll see a band 3 or 4 times and all of a sudden they're gone, with a recording contract in their hands. In New York it's a do or die thing. MOJO: Around here most of the groups are skeptical about how they'll be treated by the record companies. MIKE: A lot of the groups around here are writing great things. They should RONNIE: I don't think they're really good enough. . MIKE: The groups? They're all conert groups. RONNIE: That's not where it's at.A group has to be good enough to listen. Otherwise they're no good at all MIKE: 1 found most of the groups that we heard very listenable. RONNIE: No, I'm talking about them listening to other people. The only reason why the Beatles stay where they are is because they never stop listening. The groups here just haven't got what it takes. It takes an awful lot to make a national hit. MIKE: Well it's all underground" cause the underground reaches New York, it reaches everywhere. It's -arna z in g, I heard about the Airplane and the Holding Co. a long time ago. A year ago. ' MOJO: What about the New York .groups ? MIKE: Well. there's the J'a gged Edge. They're called the Headmasters now" for obvious reasons. Like one night the guitar 'pl aye r shows up for work and he doesn't know that he plays guitar. They had to take him
I

MIKE: Yeah, nice guitar work on it. Bloomfield played with them on that record. The Sopwith Camel played at the Night Owl for a few weeks. MOJO: How did they go down out there? MIKE: Good. They had their own following. After a week they had the i r own following. Just like Lotha r and the Hand People had their own fol kwing. Lothar plays a lot of Mose Allison stuff, a lot of quiet stuff. And they're ve ry good. But it I S hard to realize that in a big place. Theyhave one thing called "It Comes On Anyway" that's really wild. They have their own light show that they carry with them and they blow up Superbeatle amps. MOJO: Some people around here are really on the Yardbirds thing. MIKE: Yeah, we were originally influenced by the Yardbirds too. And the Who. The Who are one of the greatest bands ever. 1 heard a Who record at the Avalon and then I heard the Strangers and 1 thought like, Wow, 1 was back at the Night Owl. We played opposite the Strange r s for six months. We got fired there five times, the Spoonful got fired five times. The owner is really a prick. He's a legendary club owner. Joe Marra. He thinks he's the big entrepeneur of rock & roll groups. Or so he thinks MOJO: What are your future recording plans? MIKE: Our next album should have a wild, long thing on it. We I re going to have a weird, freak-out track. With a theme - song and eve rything. MOJO: How's the single moving? RONNIE: Oh, it S about 100,000 sales, And the album's about half that. MOJO: What kind of airplay do you get in the East on the single? MIKE: It's full coverage east ofthe Mississippi. Number 3 in Cleveland; No. 6 in Chicago. New York City, No.3. MOJO: That's great. We wish you the best of luck. Thanks a lot!
I

downstairs a~d explain what his guitar was. Then there's the UFO's. And the Time became the Chicago Loop. MOJO: They have a strange record out

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e- ((eJit)
ir

The Doors (Elektra) I first heard of the Doors last July while visiting Los Angeles. The newly- formed group was playing at the Brave New World and the hand-drav.n poster said, "hear the wile riew souris of the Doors". I didn't get to see them, but I heard several good reports. Since then ever-growing numbers of people have been praising the doors, and now with the appearance of their first album the whole music world should soon be talking about them. The personnel of the band are Jim Morrison, vocalist, and unquestionably one of the finest rock singers in the country, Ray Manzarek, who 'pl a y s organ, piano, and 'bass, Robby Krieger, guitar, and John Densmore, drums. All four are extremely competent musicians, and their rnu s i.c has a tightness, a solidness, a totality of sound that is unequaled on the West Coast except perhaps by the Grateful Dead. Of the 11 songs on the album, all but two are originals. The rendition of "Back Door Man" is the best recorded version yet by a rock group, and "Alabama Song", from Kurt Weill and Berthold Brecht's "Threepenny Opera", comes across nicely. Instrumental effects give it a delightful German beer-hall sort of sound. Of the original songs, "Break On Through", a fast-moving, hard rock number, has been released on a sin-

gle, though it's received little airplay here as yet. "Light My Fire" feature s a five minute instrum e n t al break, consisting of first an organ and then a guitar solo. The effect' is similar to that achieved b y the Grateful De ad ins u c h songs as "Vi.ola Lee" (the live performance of it), and is indicative of SOme of the trends toward use of jazz techniques in recent rock albums, best exemplified by the Blue s Project's Projections album and Butterfield's East-West album. An extremely exciting song. The songs are all wellwritten, especially "The Crystal Ship" and the last song on the r ecord, "The End". I have saved this song for last because it is by far the most original and significant song on this album. Nothing like this has ever been recorded except on certain obscure experimental jazz records, and it s appearance here is really a breakthrough in the development of rock music. The song is 111/2 minutes long and done in the improvisational st~ used in the Stones' "Going Home" , though the lyrics here have such poetic perfection that they were obviously not improvised. Jim Morrison narrate s the song, some t i in e s singing, sometimes chanting, sometimes talking. The instrumental

MOJO-NAVIGATOR - 17

background is very soft throughout the song except where it builds to a couple of really fine climaxes. The sitar-like sound of the guitar is superbly and tastefully done. The story itself is based on a section of the Tibetan Book of the Dead setting forth the method for destroying, oneself without hurting anyone close to you and without remorse. If one listens carefully through the splendid image ry of the lyric s a mode rniaed version of the ancient story can be extracted. Briefly, the narrator starts off saying goodbye tohis best friend, then his words ramble for awhile like the ravings of a madman, ;though each unconnected phrase' is a quote from the Book of the Dead, and it all makes perfect sense if one is familiar with the mystical backgrourrl of the song. Then he tells how he woke up that morning and murde re d his sister and his brother and his parents, then lured his girlfriend and other good friends into a blue , bus where he killed them. in a violent frenzy of destructivenes s (the mu s cal accompaniment during this part is particularly good). Then he says goodbye to his friend again and at the end of the song it is implied that he kills him and then himself. Suggested listening for this song is quietly, in a dark room, with perhaps a candle and/ or incense, at greatest possible volume, -o r through headphones if they are available. It is really an amazing song. The Doors are perhaps the best group to come out of Los An g e Ie s , and this album is certainly the fire st yet by any West Coast group. I suggest that everyone who reads this buy a copy. There is not a bad cut on it, the re are three standout, trul y great songs, and the better this record sells the sooner it will be b e o r e the Doo r s ' next album. /GREG SHAW

The Youngbloods

(RCA Victor)

Anyone who saw the Youngbloods at the Avalon last month will undoub-, tedly be interested in this album. Ern not sure how wide spread its distribution is; I found my copy about six weeks ago, but since then I have n+t seen it anywhere else. It can p r ob= ably be ordered through RCA if you c an+t find it in your local gangsterrun record store. The Youngbloods mix up their tunes very well, throwing in fine versions of Dino Valenti Is IILe t ' s Get Toge the r " and Fred Neill s "Other Sid e of this Lifeil in between their r 'n ' b tunes like "Statesboro Blues'l (which features great guitar work and singing by the Banana, who plays electric piano on the other tunes), "Airi+t That Lov in ' You Bab y!", and their fine rendition of 'IC. C. Rider". On the, latter they achieve a really nice feeling in the rhythm section, not the heavy pounding beat one would expect to hear out of the Chicago-center e d blues groups. On the whole, The Youngbloods present their blues material in a very subtle and intriguin g fashion. Jerry Co rb itt ' s lead guitar and Jesse Colin Youngls bass work very tightly together and give th e band a good, full sound. Those of you who have made the Gil Hile scene will find an extra bonus on this album, a tune titled "Four in the Morning". Although its not ab out Gil, it really is in a way. This is a very worthwhile first album from one of New Yor ks best groups.
v:

The Buffalo Springfield

(Atco) on of of

The Buffalo Springfield present this album twelve original songs very high quality both in terms

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their structure and their performance. 'IFor What It ' s Worth" is not included in this collection;how ever, "S'it Down I Think I Love You", a large hit for the Mojo Men is here, as is "Nowadays Clancy Can+t Even

Sing", the Springfield's first (unsuccessful) single and one of thei r best songs. An interesting sidelight on this group is their resemblance to a local group, Moby Grape, both in terms of the specific instrumenta tion (three guitars, bass) and the general sound of the songs bot h groups write. One song in particular on this album, "Leave", is strongly reminiscent of Moby Grape in its use of what is basically a jazz structure in the presentation of the melody and then the solos. The jazz feelin:g works very well there and I think other groups would dowell to attempt a similar sort of thing (the Daily Flash's brilliant "Cantalope" comes to mind as another successful merging of a jazz style into rock. ). The reason why this album makes it in a way that most debut albu m s of new groups don't is that all the songs, while unified by a general style, are es sentially different f r orn. each other. Many of them have a very nice semi-country-and-western feeling and the words are re a 11y right on the beat of a variety of things which are happening in the country and its coun country and its culture. This is one of those rare albums which I can find little wrong with. Buy it. The Byrds/ Younger Than Yesterday (Columbia) With this album, the Byrds mark their progress into purely electronic, rather than electronic music. In 5th D one could see a synthesis of rock and Indian classical music; on this Ip they are doing to Stockhausen and Variese what they previously did to Rav i Shankar and Jafa Khan. On -c TA 102" electronic effects are combined with electric instruments to simultaneously tell a little joke about space travel and scare the hell MOJO-NAVIGATOR - 19

out of the listener. Throughout this album there is an experimentation with new sounds in rock which is of the highest level. Chris Hillman erne rge s on this set as a writer of real merit. A couple of his numbers are C&W styled tune s, "Time Between" and "Girl With No Name", and they come off well. "Have You Seen Her Face" could well be a hit if it were released as a single. All in all, Hillman's \Vork is very effective because it compliments the other tunes on the album, written by McGuinn and C'rosby. In essence, this is a modern symphony. Everything on this -lp is linked together by a c ornrrrorrFe e Iing , a c omrn ou perception. This is an album which you should not let slip by. - - DAVID HARRIS The Electric Prunes/ (Reprise)

The A&R man on this date, Dave .Ha s eing e r (former L. A. hero engineer), ought to be awarded a medal 'for making a fairly minor band sound good. The Prunes' are pretty good instrumentally (the recorded sound and the overdubbed effects are very well done), rather weak vocally, and just mediocre in terms of their writing abilities. Some of their tunes, like "Onie", "Luvin"', and "Bargle s" are embarrassingly bad lyrically. However, the Prunes do have a distinctiv~ sound of their own, and iri spots this lp comes off very well. On "Sold to the Highest Bidder" there are some mandolin passages that are very effective. And this is one of the most clearly recorded rock Ips I've ever heard. Perhaps when the Prunes hit the road and start performing their tunes a great deal they will have the opportunity to modify them and make them more effective. The painting of the Electric Prunes, by Stan Leong, which is printed on both sides of the album, is devastatin gl y accurate. --DAVID HARRIS

Tue Psychedelic Sounds of the Th i r teenth Floor Elevators (Internat i on a, Artists) "The Psychedelic Sounds of th e Thirteenth Floor Elevators", say the liner notes on the back of this album. This kind of jazz turned me off im:mediately; "psychedelic" is the ITI)st overused term around (after "trip" and "wow"). "Psychedelic music" seems to refer to any piece which is clouded up with reverb, all kinds 0 f noise, and lyrics about "the neon from your eyes", etc. Anyway, "psyche:delic" is a misnomer for the music of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators. Their music is fairly unique, ifnot always appealing. The material on this Ip varie s in quality. The re is a lot of reverb and neon stuff, but there's also some very solid rock. "You're Gonna Miss Me" is probably the stronge st cut, but the blue s -tinged "Monkey To Hide", the flip of "You're Gonna Miss Me", comes off well; it is purposely slowed down and arranged much cleaner (as a single, 'it was too fast, too much like "Gonna Miss Me"). The Elevators' second single, "Reverberation", is included, and remains a very competent attempt. The softer numbers are harrlled especially well; the instrumental_. chorus arrangement on "Splash 1" is fascinating, and "Don't Fall Down' drones incessantly, a very catchy melody. ' If you've dug the Elevators in person, you should enjoy the Ip , The mixing and general production, while not pe rfect by any means, do recreate the group's sound quite well , as least as good as "Blind Man" did for Big Brother & the Holding Company. This album is commen dab 1e , within the context of the group involved and their visible limitat ion s . .Pe r s ona Il y, the Elevators seem to me to Come off here like a combination Great Society-Seeds; the Eastern influences of the former are present here, a c are the vocal styie s ')JO-NA VIGATOR - 20
5

t-

of the latter. However, it becorre s evident after listening to this album that the Elevators possess neith e r the talent for adaptation and inventiveness of Grace and Darby Slick, nor the peculiar appeal of Sky Saxon .and his bunch. The Elevators aren't that interesting, yet. The Kin k s / F ACE T 0 F ACE (Reprise) When the Kinks come up as a topic for conversation, the situation is always relatively uncomplicated. Either you've never cared for them,or you've dug them straight since "You Really Got Me" and "It's All Right". If you have grooved the Kinks all along, you probably realize there's usually a problem in previewing a "And with seven million a lot of ha i r L!' - - Vitalis heads, that's commercial

new Kinks album. At first play, the songs have a tendency to all sound alike. It therefore takes two 01" three runs through an lp to realize just what's there. In the case of "Face to 1;' ac e", the r e ' s plenty there. Providing you understand the Kinks' music and acknowledge their talent, the obvious conclusion to be made about "Face to Face" is that it is the Kinks' "Rubber Soul". It has the ingredients; it's tight (structurally in content, and in pe rformance), it has a theme (sunshine), it has variety (contrast "Party Line" with "Rainy Day in June"), and it has abundance - fourteen bands. The head liner single is here, "Sunny Afternoon". C&W is handled in "Party Line", (fairly Beatle -ish), goodtime in "Little Miss Queen of Darkness". Blues is the foundation for "You're Lookin' Fine". "Holiday in Wa ikiki.' manages successfully to integrate sound effects with instrumentation, much in the manner of "Summer in the City". Even Ray Davies' "Dandy" is palatable here. The most striking achievement, however, i s'Ro sy Wcnt You Please Come Home", which,

while definitely within the context of the Kinks, comes off as one of the most refreshing pieces in some time. So the Kinks have reached "Rubber' Soul" status with their sixth album. It's intere sting to note that what formerly characterized the Kinks' style is all but removed here. Pete Quaife's tough bass and Dave Drvie s' Chuck Berry-derivative leads seem to have given way here to more subtle rhythms and a consistent, unified sonority. The results prov ide for a new Kinks music which is softer, infinitely more textu red , and stylishly more sophisticated. ---GENE SCULATTI The Siegel-Schwall (Vanguard) Blues Band

be fine for solo folk singers, but .th e i r Chicago blues records have left much to be desired in terms of dynamic s , Some example s of good reco~ding: Spencer Davis' Gi.rnrn eSome Lovin' ", the Motown things, Spector's work with Ike and Tina Turner. Dig the message, VanK,uard? ---DAVE HARRIS
11

Tim Buckley (Elektra) A recording of Tim Buckley, Elekt r a ' s latest new talent, has been as saulting my ears for the past half hour or so. And I do mean assaul t The album is one of th e poorest examples of artistry since the Shadows of Knight fiasco. On the surface it looks very good. The cover is impres sively designed, the liner notes suitably cryptic. The personnel are distinguished: Lee Unde rw ood on lead guitar" Mr. Buckley on guitar, James Fielder on bas s , B illy Mundi on drums, and Van Dyke Parks on piano, harpsichord, and ce-, leste. With bated breath you put the record on the machine. And are thoroughly disappointed. The first song, "I Can't See You", sounds beautiful until Mr. Buckle y starts to sing. Then you realize sane ghastly error has been made. Mr. Buckley sounds as if the song is two or three keys too high. But this is just a mistake on one track, to be rectified later, you think. You should live so long. The side wends its way through five more songs, each comYou can lose your mind on a pogo stick. peting for bomb of the year. Calm reflection at this point reveals the problems. Mr. Buckle y c an 'f sing, and the song lyric s are mystic, inane, and absolutely predictable. But there is a good sound coming from somewhere. By the time you've heard side two, the somewhere is apparent. Billy Mundi and Van Dyke Parks are standMOJO-NAVIGATOR - 21

The rush is on to record ( an d make money out of) the white Chicago blues thing, and to a certain extent this record is a product of th at rush. This is a pretty good album in many ways {sometunes,like I Have Had All I Can Take and S:> Glad You're Mine" come off in good style, but the problem boils down to this: if you have the original recordings of these tunes (six of the twelve are from other r'n'b sources) the Siegel-Schwall versions won't mean much to you. And, unfortuna tel y , their original tunes, although they show a good deal of promise, never, quite come off to my ear. I feel that this group has been recorded somewhat too soon. Now, to move from their style of s oug to the musicianship: Corky Siegel is a very good piano player, ,and Jim Schwall has developed a rather unique style of lead guitar. However, I think both of these men are strait-jacketing themselves in the blues idiom. Their styles would seem to me to indicate that they could produce much more interesting, much less academic music in a straight rock bag. The Vanguard recorded sound may
11 11 11

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a~

~Y

some vocalizing by Arthur Lee which can only be described as ernba r r ass Ing , (although in fa i r-ne s s it must be said that Lee wrote all but one of the songs on this album, and structurally they are excellent) arric e guitar solo by John Echols [who has a nice trick of starting off a chorus with a rush of very fast, high-pitched notes and then rounding off with almost B. B. King-like ph r a's e s}. Then Lee returns for a somewhat more successful stint of singing and some out of hand harp work. Then Tjay Cantrelli . takes a very fine solo, with the \\hole ,Lovel Da Capo (Elektra) orientation of the band switching rru sical context behind him from rock to This album represents a gr eat adThis is done very cleanly. Afvance over the first lp which Love is- jazz. sued last Spring. The entire structure ter Cantrelli I s solo the rhythm secof the band has changed since then, tion takes over completely. Ken Forwith Alban Pfisterer switching from ssi contributes some fine bass, and then Michae.l Stuart performs a minidrums to piano I or gany ha r p s Ich o r d, Michael Stuart replacing him on perblowing drum solo which in my mind cussion and Tjay Cantrelli joining the 'ranks him with such jazz great's as Love on a variety of reeds. Love'~ Tony Williams, Elvin Jones, and musical ideas have grown a good deal, Charles Moffat in terms of what he too; right now they are working basmay potentially achieve in the rock ically on an integration of jazz and field. rock & roll into a new form of music. Love I s second album is a very fine .In general, they do very well at this, musical achievement, and well worth especially instrumentally. At times your investment. It is little like Arthur Lee I s vocals are a bit straintheir first album, which, although e d and his style somewhat exaggeratI enjoyed it, was basically an~.:nit~ed to my ears; occasionally he is very tion of the Byrds. Love has found effective. its own voice. -- D A V ID HARRIS The first side of this lp is; devoted 'to six relatively short numb e r s ( inThe Rolling Stone s I Between the But.clu.ding the hit 117 & 7 Is "}, all of tons (London) which corne off in fine form. Alban Pfisterer is especially effective on The Rolling Stones continue on this several of these - in fact the whole, lp the musical progression which band is extremely well-rehearsed ani their last album "Got Live 1YouWant tight on all the tunes. The flip side 'It" interrupted. One of the truly of the album is composed of one song, great things about the contemporary "Reve Iati on'", which runs for 18 minR & R scene is the way the groups ute sand give seve ryone ample time are constantly topping not only each to demonstrate their abilities as other with each new release, but also soloists. The piece starts after a their own back records. The sounds b r i e f harpsichord solo by Pfisterwhich marked I 'Afte r m ath ' I as a claser) as an R & B number in the style sic album have been refined and reof John Lee Hooker, runs throu gh worked on this set to produce music of even higher quality. One need not MOJO-NAVIGATOR - 22

'outs. There are s orrre truly out-: standing performances by these a rt-: i st s , Mundi is great on "Grief In My Soul " and "Song Slowly Song", Parks on "Gr i ef In My Soul" and "Ar en+t You the Girl? II But, unfortunately, Tim Buckley, .m ana ge s to submerge them both. He so dominates the album as to ren-, der it almost unlistenable for the average, intelligent Mojo reader. If you enjoy poor performances buy it. If not, forget it. I PHIL BROWN

say more than this: Everything here is brilliant, classic, worthwhile: buy the album and dig for you r se lf, - - DAVID HARRIS

Bobby Darin/ (Atlantic)

If I Were A Carpenter

Depending on the type 'of music )IOu dig, this album may be great, 0r merely pleasant, or a drag. Pe r scrrally, being more inclined toward a harder sound, I find it somewhat dull. The predominant sound of thi s lp is soft; no electric guitars, little bass, much strings. Darin is a good .s inge r , but he comes off in this context like a male Marianne Faithfull. The best thing here is the title .song, which was one of the best records of 1966. Everything else included here is pretty bland, and the reason is quite vis ible - - poor ar.ranging. "Reason To Believe" is a bastard son of "Carpenter", and another Tim Hardin piece. "Girl That Stood Beside Me", while a nice commercial follow-up, isn't much as a song in itself. "Until It's Time For You To Go" is done straight, like Buffy St. -Marie's original (Same wavering voice and the whole bit), as are " Daydream", "Sittin' He re Lovin' You", and "For Baby". "Red Balloon", a Hardin number, falls to faulty arrangement again- - could be a better p ie c e if more were made of the violin-bass contrasts. Darin's original, "Amy"," is pretty, a love ballad something like Ray Charles' "Georgia". "Misty Roses" (Hardin again) is really poor, it's in sort of a Chris Montez-Baja Marimba Band bag. The most depressing cut is Hardin's "Don't Make Promises." A "Memphis" rhythm, one itha.t is designed for hard rock specifically, gets all crapped up here with additive instrumentation, and comes out just plain loud. This album, for the genuine hard rock freak, is at best "tolerable".

If you dig Darin's. voice and C h r ~. s Montez and "That's Life" and Baja Marimba Band, you'll enjoy this one. Also, this lp is a full-fledge d Koppelrn.an-Rubin deal, 'and it shows: that they too are capable of tu~ning , , out bad stuff . The only great thin g about this album is that most of the songs were written by Hardin and Sebastian, and not P. F. Sloan. --GENE SCULATTI
i

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Looking for a re cor d shop that's fertile? ripe for your

5th & Market You know where

RECORDS "The guidance-system of weaponsitem 207, which consists of six hundred miniaturized electronic components, can best be plow-shared as a lacquered ceramic owl which appears to the unenlightened only as an ornament; the informed knowing, howeve r , that the owl's head, when removed, reveals a hollow body in which cigars or pencils can be stored

MOJO-NAVIGATOR - 23

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Th ere is much talk in San Francisco these days about the Lovin' Spoonful; everyone from the heads of the rock scene down to the lowliest teenybopper is concerned about the Spoonful Scandal, and its pos sible consequence s. Just what is this scandal that has upset so many people? A couple of rrxrfhs ago, photocopies of a page compiled from an official court transcript, the text of which accompanies this article, began appearing in public pl.a ces around this city. Immediately all manner of gossip began spreading. Our re~ porter went to the victim himself, referred to in the transcript as "defendant", to get the full story. What happened is basically no more than what is stated in the transcript. Steven Boone and Zal Yasinski of the Lovin' Spoon.ful were asked by a police undercover agent to assist him in a bust. "I'h e y tcdc him to a friend, vouche d for him, and when the friend sold the agent two lids of grass he was arrested. ' Naturally people became outraged on he a r in g this story. Contempt for police narcotics agents is exceeded only by contempt for i.nfor m e r s in the new morality of today's youth, or at least in San Francisco it is, and experience has taught us that the rest of the country i s only a step behind anything that is happening here. Bill Lougrborough, the guy that got busted, surprisingly enough is not as ha r sh on Steve and Zal as most non-involved pa rtie s tend to be. He has kn ovn them for some time, and, in his words, "They didn't know any better. II He went on to make a statement to the effect that I.!They really ~idnlt mean any harm. They're just puppies. They had no idea it would lead to all of this. I think they've learned a Ie s s onv, If the v i c t irri himself can take SUC:-l a benevolent attitude, perhaps the rest of us would do best to merely forget the whole affair. But the reaction of people who have found out about this has been very strong. A lot of pe ople are saying that they just can't seem to enjoy the music of the Lovin' Spoonful any more, and that they will certainly never buy another of their records. The Spoonful themselves have cancelled a series of concerts they were to have performed here recently, whether because of this or not we have no way of knowing. We present the facts of this case without comment, except to caution our readers to be wary, personally, in the company of these musicians. The fate of the Lovin' Spoonful itself depends on how much of the public really cares about such things at this point. MOJO-NAVIGATOR - 25

CALIFORNIA, Plaintiff, vs, WILLIAM B. LOUGRBOROUGH, Defendant. REPORTER Ne. L-50007l/2-F A FELONY, TO-WIT: Vi ol at ion of Se ct ion 11531 of the Health and Safety Cede. IS TRANSCRIPT of

PreceEi Preceedings TUESDAY, DECEMBER

6, 1966: 4:00 P. M.

Q Will you please state yeur full name and spell yeur last name? A My name is James J. Harnpton , H-a-m-p-t-e-n. Q And in May of 1966 were you an offic e r of the. San Francisce Pol ic e Department? A I was. Q Officer Harripton , en the 25th day of Mayer thereabeuts when yeu went to 2471 Washingten Street and you purchased the two lids of grass, f r orn whom did yeu get the gras s, as you ptt it? THE WITNESS: The defendant obta ine d the evidence in the b ed r oorn f r om a drawer and the drawer is right next to the doorway, He turned a r ound and handed it to Steven Beene and he THE COURT: He handed it to Steven Beene and Beene in turn handed it te you ? THE WITNESS: Yes, and handed it to me. Q Can yeu tell us who was present with yeu and the man who furnished the green vegetable material eventually at the time yeu first centacted with that man at the Cemmittee? A I was intreduced to the defendant by a Steven Beene in the company of Zal Yasinski and Bob Ca r va Iho, QAnd a spa rt of that intreductien were yeu intreduced as a musician o r a pe r s on interested in singing? A I was intreduced as a friend. MR. WHITE: Q Officer Harn pton , when did yeu first meet or have contact with Steve Beene, appreximately? A A day or two befere May 25th. Q And did a cenversatien oc cu r between Inspecter Mangnani and Inspecter Ma r ti nov ich and yeurself that these two individuals -- Steven Beene and Zalman Yasinski -- were geing to help yeu in yeur wo r k as a pol ic e .officer? Did semething like that happen? A Semething to that effect, ye s , Q Are Steven Beene and Zalman Yasinski part of the musical greup known as Levin IS Spoonful ? THE REPORTER: Weuld yeu please spell that? MR. WHITE: L-e-v-i-n-I-s S-p-e-e-n-f-u-l. -:THECOURT: It certainly s ound s like an interesting

(Cepies ot the photocopy us at a c o sf ef 25 each, MOJO,:"NAVIGATOR .: 26

of the actual c ou r t transcript are available frem if yeu are interested or if yeu dont t be.lieve us.)

RECORD NEWS:~.
'pOWer(WhOhave~ cleus the long _ ~~~~V folks in gin g and Tina Melt.signed by VanSopwith Camel ' s "Postcard Fran out on Kama Subum, which is first dub as 11el{_ trepid ace Phil be out soon Trend I s fir st Was a Good Boy" .

the Hill" out on ~ the next week. . ~ and the Fish will first lp on Van~ ~~~~~~ Their single, "Happiness is a Porpoise Mouth" will he, released simultaneous: ly Blackburn & Snow' s first album, on Verve, will appear sometime in April If their single, which unfortunately didn't make it, is any indication, the album will be excellent. The Daily Flash I s second single is out, "Si Ive r Rings"; it is definitely heave - by the way it amused me that no one seemed 10 be amused at the Avalon recently when the Daily Flash played their fanta stic "Bulgarian Baby". The scene is getting just a wee bit too deadly grim serious for the collective taste of the Mojo aces The Chambers Brothers I thi rd single on Columbia, "All Strung Out" is in the stores . Big Brother and the Holding Co. IS new single on Mainstream "Call On Me"/"Down On Me" has been released and is doing pretty well. It' s number 8 in Santa Rosa, is getting airplay on many Northern California stations, and furthermore is gettiq>; heavy play from Eastern soul stations The Peanut Butter Conspiracy's first disc lilt I s a Happening Thing" _on Columbia, flopped after extensive airplay in Sacramento seemed to indicate that it rn i ght break out here. Their album was due out in March The Byrds have released Dylan' s "My Back Pages" from their new lp on a single .. Barry Goldberg has a new single called "Gotta Carry On". Mike Bloomfield and Frank Zappa assist on the rocord . The Blues Magoos have issued a new single "Pipe Dream" which I shows a marked improvement over the material on their first lp . The Whc also have a new single out. They will- be in the US for 10 days during April, and will appear on TV with Murray the K. They 'Ll be back this summer for a tour of the country. The Spencer Davis group is also expected to do a tour here this summer . The Steve Miller Blues Band from Chicago have decided to remain in San Francisco. They're an incredibly good band and a welcome addition to this city .. The Sparrow, whose latest sing le , "Green tle Lover" recently flopped in the wake of their first flop, are also a San Fra Francisco band. They are originally from Canada The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band have r eLea s ed a fine album on Liberty the Left Banke I s first album on Smash is very good also The most important recording event so far this year is the release of the Grateful Dead album on March 20. We will

:probably review it in depth next issue In case you weren't awere, The Grateful Dead almost released a single last year on the Scorpio label "Stealin'''/''Don't Ease Me In". This side is destined~ be a really rare item, s irce the only copy that we knew of to date (the Dead ted the cuts and didn't aIlov 'the record to be released) was in our possessio. Not so. Eight more copies have turned up in a junk shop near Ukiah. Apparently a syndicate was formed for distribution up there, and after buying out the entire remaining stock of this extremely ra:te non-masterpiece at 10f a copy, the Ukiah locals have begun to jack up their friends for the exorbitant prices that this 45 can bring the first few went for 2 -3 dollars apiece The Baltimore Steam Packet have been signed to a seven year contract by Capitol. Why? I ask. This band is still imitating the Airplane, and not doing that very well at it either John Francis Gunning, one of the best drummers on the West Coast, has left Country Joe and the Fish. Their new drummer, however, is almost as good somebody is making a bloody fortune peddling SF dance posters . Newsweek reports that in one month 57,000 Wes Wilson posters were sold. They are being sold now all over the country, the usual price is $1 here,$L; outside SF. By now every house in the Bay Area that contains a kid age 12 or 'older also contains several poster reprints. By the time every kid in the country ka s as many of the hundred or more that are available as he wants, -e ve r-yorie connected with the poster scene will be a millionaire several times over. First editions of the posters and copies of posters that were never reprinted are bringing fabulous prices from fanatical collectors here. It's really too much Rick Stanley & the Gentle Soul will issue their first single soon on Columbia We're the hairiest wild wonder I've ever seen. NICK "THE GREEK" GRAVENITIS and STEVE MILLER

MOJO-NAVIGATOR

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Mojo photo by "Ace" Mitchellt

Rock is now a very going concern on the FM the recent FCC decision to ban simulcasting both an AM station and its FM affiliate of the growth of the rock audience both in maturity A survey of FM stations now in the rock bag:

radio stations, due mostly to (the simultaneous broadcast on same program), and to th e and in simple economic power.

KPFA: 92.4 mg: KPFA broadcasts the best rock music on the dial, as one would expect, since they also broadcast the best of just about everything else. The main vehicle for R&R is the Cocoanut Grove show, on Monday-Saturday nights from 12 midnight to 6 in the morning. Intersperced wi t h an excellent cross -section of the best recorded rock around are some very interesting discussions on the scene. This program is very important, and one wishes sometimes that it could be on at a different time so that more . people could hear it. KPFA also programs Mike Chetchek's show, King Biscuit West (with Ed Denson on second microphone) every other Monday night at 11 o'clock. In addition, No commercials at all. Bravo, KMPX: 106.9 programming tune in to the 81. the Holding program KPFA. fillers are also rock sometimes.

mg. stereo: KMPX is gradually working into a is very hip - for the first time around here it excellent recordings of local groups on the air Co , , the new Sopwith Camel side, Country Joe

rock bag. The is possible to (Big Brother and the Fish.

the Charlatans, etc.). The D. J. s are casual, relaxed, and the commercials are quiet: in short, listening to KMPX is a pleasant experience. Aside from airing local bands, they also play the best of recorded sides from other parts of the land (Dylan, Butterfield, the Blues Project, and the Daily Flash. seem to hit the turntables often). At present R&R is on from 12 midnight - 10:30 in the morning, then again from 1:30 until 4 in the pm. KMPX is already developing into a very strong agent for the maturing of the audience around here by launching the really good rock group singles and forcing Time Like the Rain". tined to hit KFRC to pick up on them. Examples: The Blues Project's "No the Right Time" and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Buy For Me Without KMPX these would have'died; now they seem to be des.

KFRC-FM: 106.1 mg: I don't understand it, but apparently the FM outlet of KFRC is still operating under at least partial simulcast, because whenever I tune in and check, it's b r oadc a st ing -e xac tl y what the AM station is. Perhaps I just haven't caught the different program sections yet (the FCC ordinance allows a certain percentage of simulcasting for a Lirn ite d time; eventually it must all be phased out). If KFRC is going to hold its own in the EM market against the substantial lead which KPF'A arid KMPX are piling up, it had better do something different quickly. KGO-FM: 103.7 mg. stereo: A semi-chicken rock station. Jim Moore is announcing records no matter when I tune in, so I assume that this is a computerized, pre -taped operation. Commercials about the same in coritent as KGO-AM, but somewhat more subdued in volume. This station varies widely between irite r e s t ing album cuts in the quiet rock bag (Laura Nyro, Cyrkle) and mushy Hollywood string arrangements. 1they harden up the sound they might have some impact, since they have almost no talk and quite a bit of music (unfortunately of varying quality, as I indicated above). MOJO-NAVIGATOR - 29

KOlT: 93. 3 nlg. stereo: Bill Kafury and his electric c ornpute r spin the KYA .play list, with s orn e rnu sh= mu sh mu s ic irib etwe en, This is a good d~al like KGO-FM, except that the pr og r amm ing is a wee bit rno r e adventurous. 1 get the irnp r e s s ion that KOlT is serving as a sort of testing ground for KYA in s orn e cases - they aired a side by the Music Machine on KOlT which, justifiably, didn't rriake KYA. Again, t irne will tell. Sorn e Rarid orn Corrirn errt s . KPFA and KMPX are the only ones which 1 can listen to for a long time. Yet, the others aren't really unpleasant, and if they started programming' with a little daring and flair they m i ght be c orne very valuable. The market for FM rock is certainly there; let us hope that both the requirements of a rnatu r ing audience and the c ornrn e r c i.al hangups of the stations can be satisfied in the exploitation of that rna r ke t, The Rock & Roll press has gained a new rn errib e r , The first issue of Electric Frog has appeared, dated Feb. 26, 1967. Electric Frog is the first rock fanzine to appear on the scene;.it is m irne og r aphe d, three pages of record reviews and personal c ornm ent on JOHN FRANCIS GUNNING the roc k scene. In his "notice of intent" e dito r J'arne s Wright says: "If a person wants to intelligently discuss rock & roll he has to do it through (Mojo-Navigator, Crawdaddy or Hit Parader). Rather than work through the above sources I've rn e r el y created my own source. L've decided to open the pages of Electric Frog to anybody with something to say about rnu s ic , If you have anything at all to say out there, sit down and write it out and send it on in. " Electric Frog: 1605 Thayer St. , Richland Wash. 99352. Subscriptions: 10 is sue s for $l. We wish Electric Frog the best of luck and encourage our readers to take advantage of this opportunity to discuss rock rnu s ic informally
.K?'

MOJO-NAVIGATOR Mojo photo by "Ace" Mitchell

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