Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Knocking ‘Round The Zoo” by James Taylor It is indeed an amazing story as to how a recovering from heroin singer songwriter from America came to the attention of The Beatles in 1968, leading to the release of the first album by an American artist to be released on The Beatles’ newly-christened Apple Records. James Taylor came from a wealthy family and grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where he learned to play cello and then guitar. The family vacationed in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts during the summers where he first met Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar at the age of 14. Even at their young age, Kootch realized that Taylor’s singing...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – Okolona River Bottom Band” by Bobbie Gentry Bobbie Gentry performed one of the greatest disappearing acts in all of music history. Unlike Elvis Presley and the still persistent Elvis sightings, Gentry really is alive and well and living in California…in glorious obscurity. But back in 1967, you couldn’t turn a radio on without hearing her single “Ode To Billie Joe,” or tune into a variety show on TV without seeing her performing it. In her wake, Gentry left seven interesting albums of varying quality including Ode To Billie Joe, the album that established her, a duet album with Glen Campbell, and one bona-fide lost classic, The Delta Sweete, which is the...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Groovy Movies” by The Kinks The Great Lost Kinks Album isn’t really The Great Lost Kinks Album. That distinction goes to Reprise Records RS-6309 which would have been released in late 1967 or early 1968 as Four More Respected Gentlemen. But for reasons unknown, that record was never released and ultimately its best tracks finally saw the light of day on The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, and judging by the quality of that platter, we can all be thankful that The Great Lost Kinks Album never materialized anyway. You follow? By 1971, The Kinks jumped ship to RCA Records and released the also wonderful Muswell Hillbillies album,...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Power Of My Love” by Elvis Presley I vividly remember the day Elvis died. My too hip for the world sixteen year old friends and I realized it was a big deal for some, but the Elvis fans we knew were so old and out of touch, that his passing wouldn’t have registered at all on our radar had it not been for the media frenzy that surrounded it. To us, Elvis was a totally irrelevant, washed up and bloated middle of the road singer whose death was no big deal. It wasn’t until several years later that I finally got what all the fuss was about, and at that point...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Bacchanal” by Gabor Szabo Yesterday, I wrote about the Lena Horne/Gabor Szabo album Lena & Gabor. In doing so, I listened to that album, plus records by Lena Horne and Gabor Szabo while researching the piece.  As a result, I decided to feature one of Sazabo’s great albums today, and to reuse some of the information that I used in yesterday’s post. Gabor Szabo was one of the few guitarists whose stands comfortably beside Jerry Garcia when it comes to guitar sound, technique and improvisatory style. His use of Indian and Middle Eastern scales had a profound influence on the likes of John McLaughlin, Carlos Santana, Robbie Krieger of The...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman   –   “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by The Who Psychedelic Ox from an album reviled by the band, but truly loved by fans. Today’s Song Of The Day was originally a 1968 B-side written by Who bassist John Entwistle.  The song ended up on the album Magic Bus: The Who On Tour, which contrary to its title was not a live recording, but a compilation of studio off tracks from other releases. The 1968 album, which was compiled for American and Canadian markets only, included tracks from EPs (primarily the 1966 EP, Ready Steady Who) and stray singles, with a dash of a few already available cuts from the...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Lady Madonna” by Fats Domino Reprise Records was one of the labels to be on in the 1960s. What started out as the house that Frank Sinatra built, chock full of releases by his cronies like Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., turned into Mo’s home when Sinatra sold the label to Warner Brothers in 1963, and Mo Ostin began to sign artists to the label. Ostin ran the label as a haven for artists and under his aegis, a hip cadre of musicians like Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell, The Kinks, Arlo Guthrie, Ry Cooder, Neil Young, T. Rex, Pentangle, Gram Parsons, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Gordon Lightfoot, Jimi Hendrix and...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Make It With You” by Bread To some, Bread’s brand of soft rock was nothing more than insipid drivel. To others they were purveyors of well-crafted, easy listening staples that provided some of the greatest guilty pleasures to be heard on AM radio during the early ‘70s. To me, their songs were minor annoyances that didn’t make me rush to change the station when they used to pop up on the radio, but now their heavenly brand of melody-driven soft rock provides a welcome dose of nostalgia for the wonder years every time I hear them. When they released their first eponymously titled album in 1969, the band consisted of...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Silly Savage” by The Golden Toadstools “Chuck Berry, strawberry, cranberry and dingleberry, baby!” And so begins one of the most funked-up romps I’ve ever heard this side of the Godfather Of Soul himself!  Next to nothing is known about The Golden Toadstools, who originally released this one-off record written by Merlin Jones and Wayne Branham back in 1966. After doing much research I couldn’t come up with any information about who Jones and Branham are, who the group was or where they were from. All I could find is information about the record label that released this one of a kind record, which duly follows. The record was released on...

  New Year’s Eve Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “In The Year 2525″ by Zager and Evans Denny Zager and Rick Evans met in college in Nebraska in the early 1960s and began playing music together. They wrote the song in 1964 and recorded it and released it on the local Truth record label in 1968. Once the song became a regional hit on radio stations in Nebraska, the duo was picked up by RCA records who released it nationally where it reached the top of the charts for six weeks during the summer of ’69, just in time for man’s first steps on the moon. It was also the number one record in the country...