To end the month, it is time to post another sampler of songs from Flying Vinyl looking at the songs that they put out on their monthly box of seven inch records for 2016.
Once again, I had a couple of rules I needed to follow.
One – none of the songs that I had used on my podcasts I made celebrating the label could be used.
Two – all of the songs had to be available on Spotify so the artist would hopefully earn some money from this, however pitiful the royalty rate is.
Three – I was looking to include artists who had been on the 2015 sampler. I did fail by including yet another song by Beach Baby, but is a cracker so I decided it should stay.
Side A
Lost Direction – Cameron AG
Baby’s Alright – Inheaven
Skin Dives – Tangerines
True – Junk Son
Joey Says We Got It – The Orielles
Dreamland – Johnny Lloyd
Making Eyes – Saltwater Sun
Side B
Make Me Better – Ten Fe
Ay Ay – Otherkin
All My Pride – Black Honey
Summer – Skinshape
Make It Go Away – Eliza Shedded
All That I Want – Royal Sons
Side C
You Stole My Blackout – Palm Honey
Cannonball – Hidden Charms
Pipedreams – Willie J Harvey
Make Up Your Mind – Trash
Make A Man – Estrons
Let’s Go Out – Alex Lahey
What We Haven’t Got Yet – Jaws
Side D
Set The Fire – Swimming Tapes
That Certain Favour – Pinemen
Sleepyhead – Beach Baby
Ice – Fake Laugh
Slipping – Treams
It’s A Secret Life – Paven
The cover is based upon the packaging that the singles came in for some of 2016.
Part one of this series looking into the releases from 2015
Deep Purple are one of the greatest rock bands of all time having released such classics as ‘Black Night’, ‘Highway Star’, ‘Fireball’ and most famously, ‘Smoke on the Water’. However, most of the songs they are most famous for date from the period between 1970 and 1975. The classic era as it were, or the Mark II line up as it also known as. It is the Mark I line up that this post is concerned with. This line up included band stalwarts such as Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Jon Lord (keyboards) and Ian Paice (drums). The other two members who made up this first line up were Nick Simper (bass) and Rod Evans (vocals).
The band was the brain child of ex-Searchers drummer, Chris Curtis. The idea was that there would be a core of musicians who would then be joined by other members when their particular skills were needed. The original band name was Roundabout to reflect this. Curtis was already a bit erratic and his lifestyle, fuelled by his use of LSD lead to him not sticking with the project for long. Members came and went before the Mark I was in place. All that was left was to pick a new name with Blackmore suggesting ‘Deep Purple’, which was his grandmothers favourite song.
After a period of rehearsals, the group recorded their debut album in May of 1968. ‘Shades of Deep Purple’ came out two months later with the lead single, ‘Hush’ becoming a massive hit in the USA and Canada. Neither single or album did very much in the UK and so the band focused their efforts in the USA, with a gig supporting Cream on their ‘Goodbye’ tour.
The band returned for another US tour, but this time as headliners. Their US record company, Tetragrammaton, felt that they needed more material and another album to promote. The resulting ‘The Book of Taliesyn’ was written in a rush because the band had been so busy, they had not had much time to work on new material. The sessions for the record started before their debut had even been released in their native UK.
You can tell that the band were lacking material. ‘The Book of Taliesyn’ contains only seven songs (even though one was split into the two in ‘Exposition’ and We Can Work It Out’). This also included a couple of instrumentals and three covers. The songs were longer with the cover of ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ breaking the ten minute barrier. The band were unable to take much of a break though because within four months, they were back in the studio recording what would be their third (and last) LP by the Mark I line up. Even though there was only one cover on this album, and one instrumental, the long song quota was met by the twelve minute song ‘April’.
Even though they had had some success, mostly in the USA, the core members of the band were looking to take the band in a harder rock direction. They felt that Rod Evans did not have the voice for the more aggressive material they were writing. Evans also seemed to be keen to move to the US permanently. The core members were also not happy with Simper’s bass playing, which they felt was rooted in the past. Manoeuvres were in place to recruit replacements with Ian Gillan (vocals) and Roger Glover (bass) becoming the new members. With this line up in place, the classic Mark II were ready to go.
However, what if the band had not been rushed into the studio in late 1968 and given time to develop more material. Well, this is the album that we could have had. What we have is a more concise record, rooted in psychedelic rock with prog rock flourishes. I also wanted to take out any covers and along with that, the longer songs, especially ‘April’ which takes up most of the side of an LP. Jon Lord and his classical influences should possibly have been kept for a solo project or two.
The band also released the stand along single, ‘Emmaretta’ in 1969. Said to have been inspired by Emmaretta Marks, a cast member in the musical ‘Hair’ whom lead singer Rod Evans was trying to seduce. The original UK B-Side was the instrumental ‘Wring That Neck’, but as this has been included on the LP, I put original album opener ‘Chasing Shadows’ there instead.
Side 1
Shield – The Book of Taliesyn
Listen, Lean, Read On – The Book of Taliesyn
Wring That Neck – The Book of Taliesyn
Anthem – The Book of Taliesyn
Side 2
Why Did’t Rosemary? – Deep Purple
The Painter – Deep Purple
Fault Line – Deep Purple
Bird Has Flown – Deep Purple
Blind – The Book of Taliesyn
Single
Emmaretta – Non Album Single
Chasing Shadows – Deep Purple
Would this have meant that the Mark I lineup would have continued. I doubt it, but it is interesting to see what the band could have sounded like if they did not feel they had to come up with material on the hoof, and extend their cover versions to pad out the vinyl.
For the cover, I used the name and the art work that was used when the self titled third LP was released.
This is the fifth entry in my on going series of Beach Boys yearly deep dives and this one is posted as yesterday was the 60th Anniversary of the release of the ‘Summer Days (& Summer Nights)’ album
With Brian Wilson off of the road, 1965 would be the year he could finally start concentrating on writing and producing material for the band, as well as others. A deep dive box set for Wilson’s none Beach Boys productions should really be a future project. Anyway, Wilson decided it was time to take the band away from the styles and lyrical subjects that they had used in the past. He also experimented with the LP as an art from. This was shown on ‘The Beach Boys Today!’ album where side one is uptempo tracks whereas side two is made up of ballads.
‘The Beach Boys Today!’ was also their first album of the year. Like the previous two years, the band put out three albums in 1965, even though ‘Beach Boys’ Party’ was essentially a stop gap made up mostly of covers. However, it was still something different as it was made to sound like an impromptu session recoded with acoustic instruments with a party atmosphere. The recording was anything but. The songs were recorded individually in the studio having been rehearsed beforehand. Some consider this to be the first unplugged album.
Even though albums up to and including Beach Boys Today! had dedicated Stereo mixes, for some reason, in 1965, it was decided that these would be replaced with Duophonic mixes. Duophonic mixes consisted of two mono signals with an almost imperceptible time delay (measured in milliseconds) between them. As far as I can tell, the only difference between the two master recordings of ‘Graduation Day’ on Disc 9 is that one has a spoken intro and the other does not.
I have not included the sessions for the ‘Beach Boys’ Party!’. This is down to the fact that the Party LP has received an official multi disc sets that the albums before then had not. Therefore I felt that this was a good place to stop (so no ‘Pet Sounds’ etc in future).
Sources for the songs included on this set.
1 – Unsurpassed Masters Vol. 8 – The Alternate “Today’ Album, Part 2 (Bootleg)
2 – Today!
3 – Today! (2012 Remaster)
4 – Summer Love Songs
5 – Unsurpassed Masters Vol. 9 – The Alternate ‘Summer Days (and Summer Nights!)’ Album, Vol. 2 (Bootleg)
6 – Summer Days (and Summer Nights)
7 – Summer Days (and Summer Nights) (2012 Remaster)
8 – Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of the Beach Boys (2003)
9 – The Warmth of the Sun
10 – Unsurpassed Masters Vol. 7 – The Alternate ‘Today’ Album, Part 1 (Bootleg)
11 – Today!/Summer Days and Summer Nights!) (1990 Reissue)
12 – Hawthorne, CA: Birthplace Of A Musical Legacy
The 12” single is a curious beast. The first commercially released single* in that format was “For Once In My Life/Glad Rag Doll’, by jazz guitarist Buddy Fite. The numbers pressed were quite small and only available at two Tower Records sites in California. The label proudly boasted that this was ‘The World’s First 12 Inch Single’. It was pressed to play at 33rpm which meant that there was a lot of dead space on the disc. It also took away one of the main selling points of the 12” single but I will come back to these two points later. More were to follow but these tended to be promotional items. It would take until the early days of the disco era for the format to really take off.
This could arguably be down to one man, Tom Moulton. Inspired by DJ’s who would mix between the instrumental and vocal side of Ultra High Frequency’s single, “Walk On The Right Track” as well as other singles were an instrumental version of the title track was included, Moulton managed to pursued the Sceptre Record label to experiment with an already released song. This was “Dream World” by Don Downing. Moulton took the track and extended it to almost twice its original length. The single was re-released with the extend mix as the A-Side with the subheading, Disco Mix Version. Could this be the first disc designated as such? It was not released on 12” though.
The disco mix on the longer form single would be a happy accident. Moulton wanted to test a mix he had completed of “I’ll Be Holding On” by Al Downing. As there wasn’t any 7” acetates available, it was decided to use a 10” instead. Moulton felt that there would be a lot of wasted space pressing this if this was for a 7” so he asked mix engineer Jose Rodriquez to cut it with the grooves more spread out. To do this, Rodriquez needed to increase the sound level which made the sound ‘hotter’ . This was due to the wider grooves allowing an overall wider range which went down well with the DJs. This also gave Moulton the idea to test run his remixes in the clubs before they were let loose on the public.
Other labels took note and throughout 1975, several 12” singles were made for promotional use only. These were designed to help sales of the 7” as they were thought of as not being commercially viable. However, pressure from record shops to have these mixes released to the public eventually lead to the first commercial released 12” of the disco era. That being, “Ten Percent” by Double Exposure. The era of the 12” single had begun.
What I have looked to do is compile some of these 12” mixes from he disco era, so from 1976 until 1982. By the early 80s, disco was all but dead but other genres such as rap were also using the format so I have included some of these pioneers as well. I have also tried to put them in as close to chronological order as possible.
The 12” single is till produced today but it is nowhere near as popular as once it was. It might be time to re-evaluate the format.
Disc 1
Ten Percent (Special 12” Disco Mix) – Double Exposure
Space Age (12’ Promo Mix) – The Jimmy Castor Bunch
Gotham City Boogie – Ultra Funk
Brick House (Original 1977 12” Special Length Disco Version) – The Commodores
Ain’t Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman) (Original 1977 12” Full Version) – Joe Tex
You Should Be Dancing (Special Disco Version) – The Bee Gees
Everybody Dance (Original 1977 12” Single Mix) – Chic
Devil’s Gun (12” Tom Moulton Mix) – C.J. & Co.
Shame (12” Disco Mix) – Evelyn “Champagne” King
Got To Give Up, Pts 1 & 2 (Original 1977 12” Full-Length Promo SingleVersion) – Marvin Gaye
Native New Yorker (Original 1977 12” Disco Version) – Odyssey
Disc 2
Le Freak (Original 1978 12” Single Version) – Chic
Contact (UK 12” Edit) – Edwin Starr
Running Away (Original 1977 12” Long Version) – Roy Ayres feat. Ubiquity
Rasputin (12” Single Version) – Boney M
Got My Mind Made Up (German 12” Mix) – Instant Punk
In The Bush (Original 12” Special Disco Francois K Mix) – Musique
Love Hangover (Original 12” Promo Mix) – Diana Ross
Disc 3
Good Times (Original 1979 US 12” Single Mix) – Chic
Got To Be Real (Original 12” Version Single Version) – Cheryl Lynn
Blame It On The Boogie (John Luongo Disco Mix 12” Version) – TheJacksons
Street Life (12” Full Length French Disco Mix) – The Crusaders feat. Randy Crawford
Funkytown (Original 1979 12” Single Mix) – Lips Inc
Can’t Live Without Your Love (Original 12” Mix) – Tamiko Jones
Boogie Wonderland (Special Disco Mix) – Earth, Wind & Fire with The Emotions
Let’s Start The Dance (Original 12” Promo Mix) – Hamilton Bohannon
Boogie Oogie Oogie (Original 1978 12” Single Mix) – A Taste Of Honey
Rivers Of Babylon (Original US 12” Single Version) – Boney M
I Will Survive (12” Version) – Gloria Gaynor
Disc 4
Is It Love You’re After (US 12” Promo Version) – Rose Royce
Flashlight (Extended 12” Mix) – Parliament
The Boss (Original 12” Mix) – Diana Ross
He’s The Greatest Dancer (12” Mix) – Sister Sledge
Spacer (12” Full Length Disco Mix) – Sheila & B. Devotion
Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now (12” Mix) – McFadden & Whitehead
Love Sensation (Tom Moulton Long Remix) – Loleatta Holloway
Rappers Delight (Long Version) – The Sugarhill Gang
Rapture (12” UK Special Disco Mix) – Blondie
Disc 5
Super Freak (Original 1981 12” Disco Mix) – Rick James
Jump To The Beat (Original 1980 12” Single Version) – Stacey Lattisaw
Need Your Lovin (12” Version) – Teen Marie
Pull Up To The Bumper (Original 12” 1981 12” Long Version)
The Message (Original 1982 12” Single Version)
Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag (Original 12” Single Mix) – Pigbag
You Got The Floor (12” Version) – Arthur Adams
Sexy Dancer (UK 12” Long Version) – Prince
Last Night A D.J. Saved My Life (Original 1982 12” Single Version) – Indeed
Going Back To My Roots (Original 1981 12” Extended Version) – Odyssey
Forget Me Nots (Original 1982 12” Special Dance Mix) – Pattrice Rushen
Dance Freak (Original Club 12” Mix) – Chain Reaction
*There was a 12” single released by Old Town Records in 1966. This was Betty Lou & Bobby Adams with their song, “Soul Stirrer”. This was a promotional item with the same song on both sides. Being a promo, it was not available for commercial release.
