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(Psychedelic Furs - Quintessential 80's)

A sort of homage to the passing of John Hughes tonight. I remember what impact his films had on that decade, more or less defining yet another generation of misunderstood youth - but not in a malevolent way. The music changed too - the rough edge of Punk smoothed out and New Wave took center stage, at least for a while.

One of those bands that seemed to epitomize the 80's was Psychedelic Furs. Maybe because you couldn't think of "Pretty In Pink" without thinking of them, or of Molly Ringwald, or both for that matter.

I dug this BBC Transcription out, a Radio One concert from May 28, 1984 featuring an hour with The Psychedelic Furs recorded live at The Hammersmith Odeon.

A visit to the 80's seemed like a good thing to do tonight.

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(Having the distinction of being "L.A.'s Own")

In the mid to late 60's in Los Angeles, I don't recall a single week going by where The Yellow Payges weren't either playing one of the clubs or an opening act at a concert. They were probably one of the most visible bands on the local scene for years.

The trouble was, nobody seemed to know who they were outside of Southern California. And it wasn't for trying. They issued albums and singles and toured almost constantly, but nothing charted with great success.

In retrospect two things come to mind. A: they were primarily a club band and most of their material were covers of other bands (case in point - this concert features, among others, a cover of "Lady Jane" by The Rolling Stones and "Sunshine Of Your Love" by Cream) and because of that they had more of a "garage band" appeal. And B: Their recorded efforts just didn't represent who they were live. This was a problem with a lot of bands in the 60's (Grateful Dead certainly was one) where, as great as they were live, just couldn't quite get in the groove in the studio. The opposite was also true with a lot of bands who were great in the studio but very disappointing live.

With all that said though, this concert from August 13, 1968 features The Yellow Payges as opening act for The Rascals (heard over the past few weeks), and it captures probably best who they were - a raw, spontaneous, tight band that had a large and loyal following from 1966 to their breakup in 1970. There is a really nice piece on the Yellow Payges you might want to check out here: http://www.60sgaragebands.com/bandbios.html

I'm not sure if this is the only representation of Yellow Payges live, but I haven't seen anything to suggest otherwise. As with all these performances, the recording technology wasn't as forgiving as it is now and mixing multiple mics was still flying by the seat of your pants. So forgive the distortions and the odd bursts.

As always, it's history.

A few weeks ago I posted a Miriam Makeba concert from the Hollywood Bowl in 1962. I made mention of the fact that one of the opening acts was the recently formed Dave Guard's Whiskeyhill Singers. I got a lot of response on that, with readers wanting to know when I would get around to posting it. Sorry for the delay, so here it is.

For those of you not familiar with Dave Guard or the Whiskeyhill Singers, Guard had recently left The Kingston Trio, taking with him David "Buck" Wheat, their accompanist bass player. The Kingston Trio was one of the most successful folk acts of the late 1950's to early 1960's, cresting a wave of popularity that ebbed just around the time The Beatles came on the scene. Folk music in general had achieved a great amount of popularity during this time - first as a true exponent of Americana and later as a means of protest, although the protest part had been around for a long time with the likes of Pete Seeger, The Vietnam War seemed to be the galvanizing point from which a lot of protest Folk singers emerged.

Dave Guard's Whiskeyhill singers consisted of Dave Guard, Cyrus Faryar, Judy Henske and Dave "Buck" Wheat.

The group didn't last very long, splitting up shortly after this concert was recorded. They released one album for Capitol, with another as yet unreleased.

So here is a glimpse of a short-lived group, whose members went on to pursue other musical avenues and achieve names in their own right. Their traditional folk approach is evident in the three songs from this portion of the set: 1. Railroad Bill 2. The Oxdriver 3. Salomila

Enjoy.

(MFQ - Hollywood Bowl - September 23, 1964)

A change of pace this week. One of the influential West Coast bands of the folk/post-folk/folk-rock genre in the early-mid 1960's, MFQ crafted a hybrid of different musical styles right at a time when music in general was taking different directions. The result was adventuresome and you can hear their influence in a lot of West Coast music of the period (early Grass Roots, early Association, the U.S. Kaleidoscope, Deep Six - the list goes on).

When this concert was recorded (September 23, 1964 at a Political rally) they were still entrenched in folk by playing standards of the time like "Draft Dodger" and the Phil Ochs arrangement of "Bells", with Banjo figuring prominently in their lineup. But by the end of their set, when they switch to electric guitars, you can tell bigger things were on the horizon.

A fine band whose first incarnation broke up around 1966, their lineup in this concert was Cyrus Faryar, Jerry Yester, Chip Douglas and Henry Diltz.

Good stuff and a nice slice of history. And that's sort of what we do here.

(Mussorgsky: Baba-Yaga and The Great Gate of Kiev from "Pictures At An Exhibition" - Broadcast of March 20, 1960)

Okay, I confess . . I'm addicted to Classical Music. It was the first thing I heard coming out of the womb and it's been with me ever since. My guilty pleasure is hearing it live, my guiltier pleasure is hearing it live from decades ago. I grew up listening to The New York Philharmonic on the radio as a kid and nothing on earth sounded as wonderful as that orchestra did in the 1950's and 1960's, with names like Bruno Walter, Guido Cantelli, Artur Rodzinski, Leonard Bernstein and Fritz Reiner stood at the podium and made magic in Carnegie Hall.

So here's a sample, a small sample, but a taste of what that wonderful band sounded like in March of 1960, when Fritz Reiner guest conducted and the concert was broadcast. I still picture a nine year-old trying to climb into the speaker to get a better listen.

I still try to do that.

(The Hollywood Bowl - August 16, 1968 . . back for more!)

For everyone who wrote in and couldn't get enough of The Rascals at the Hollywood Bowl from August 16, 1968, here's Part 2 (of what looks like 3 parts). For those of you keeping chronological order, this is the first part of the show (minus Love Is A Beautiful Thing which was the original 2nd song of the set which I put in the first part a couple weeks ago). With the time constraints from YouTube I had to cut out the Bowl intro (which announced upcoming acts Simon & Garfunkle and Jimi Hendrix) and some of the between song patter, but I managed to squeeze in another 3 song set which opens with "Do You Feel It", followed by "A Girl Like You" and closes this entry with "Movin' On".

As before, the sound is a little hot in places, but the energy is definitely there and this is history on the fly.

Stay tuned for Part 3.

I was going through some old aircheck tapes the other day. Mostly Los Angeles FM stations from the 1950's and '60's. I ran across a number of tapes labeled "Live Folk Programs". They were all remotes from various clubs around Los Angeles, none of which exist any more. This particular tape, via KRHM-FM (now known as The Wave) was part of a weekly program that came from The Renaissance and The Ash Grove clubs in Hollywood. One of the frequent groups to perform was Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, two legendary figures in the Blues World. They recorded for several labels and performed everywhere in the world during their five decade career. This recording, taken off the air in December of 1959 is in surprisingly good quality, as most early FM broadcasts were. FM at the time was an afterthought in broadcasting, the exclusive property of the "hi-fi enthusiast" in the 1950's whose arcane tastes in music and massive audio systems afforded some very eclectic programming. This set features Terry and McGhee celebrating their 20th anniversary of performing together (they got together in 1939) performing "Living With The Blues" and "A Closer Walk With Thee".

(Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee - a 1960's photo)

(Tommy James And The Shondells - not so squeaky clean)

It's that time again - another trip backstage. This weekend it's Tommy James And The Shondells from August 16, 1968 (same date as The Young Rascals and The Seeds - more on them in later weeks). I could never really quite put my finger on them. They had a massive string of top-40 hits, but they had a certain garage band appeal and they really tried to hit the crossover/counterculture audience. I always thought they were capable of doing greater things. But in the case of so many bands of the 60's (case in point: Sopwith Camel) you tended to be pigeonholed. And unless you were massive, you couldn't escape the tiny box you got put into. Interesting sidelight here - when you listen midway through "Hanky Panky" you'll hear Tommy utter "I hate this song!" - no doubt with good reason. Like "Wild Thing" by The Troggs, "Hanky Panky" became something of an anthem for an entire generation. Like it or not, it's probably going to be on some archeological artifact a few thousand years from now.

Wonders will never cease.

(1. Hanky Panky 2. Mony-Mony 3. I Think We're Alone Now)