With the 112th
Us Open Championship being contested at The Olympic Club, San Francisco,
California this year, top sports tipster & tweeter (Betting Zone & Sky Sports)
@DaveTindallgolf asked me to compile a list of West Coast bands from the
golden age of rock, the 60’s. I thought this was a great idea, and so below, is
a compilation of 10 iconic West Coast bands. (In no particular order & yes I
know, you may have other artists/tracks in mind!) & a further list of a few
more obscure bands & Californian heavyweights, just in case you wanted to dig a little
deeper into those heady daze of Laurel Canyon & Haight-Ashbury.
The Byrds -
Eight Miles High
The Byrds
started out playing standard folk rock, graduating to the big league with
Dylan’s Mr Tambourine Man in 1965. Just weeks after recording another
folk song “He Was A Friend Of Mine” in 1966, the Byrds started to find their feet & made their mark in the burgeoning flower power scene with the acid tinged 'Eight Miles High'. It was one of the earliest known sonic attempts to recreate an LSD trip. Gene Clark’s
lyrics coupled with McGuinn’s free form jazz style improvisations gave the listener a metaphor for an LSD trip into outer-space.
The Beach
Boys – Good Vibrations
Recorded
over a six month period, the final version of Good Vibrations highlights Brian
Wilson’s genius in the production booth. Wilson
Buffalo Springfield
A band that had in its ranks, not only Neil Young
but also Stephen Stills. With it’s instantly recognisable opening riff, this
track has been a stalwart in every Vietnam war film and just about every
documentary on the late 60's ever since. Often mistaken for an anti-war song,
it was actually about the "Sunset Strip riots" of the mid 60's which
inspired Stephen Stills to write "For What It's Worth". Wrongly
interpreted as a protest song, it's actually a reflection on the futility of
the protest era. Not just flying the freak flag for protesters, Stills is
encouraging everyone to "Stop, look around" to see what’s really going
on, a whispered cry for some self examination & rationale.
"There's battle lines being drawn; Nobody's
right if everybody's wrong"
White Rabbit – Jefferson Airplane
Lewis Carroll set to a dark Latino beat. Grace Slick transferred this
over from her previous band The Great Society, to the more psychedelic
Jefferson Airplane in 1967. “When logic and proportion have
fallen sloppy dead, And the white knight is talking backwards, And the red
queen is off with her head, Remember what the dormouse said, Feed your head!,
Feed your head!” Blatant drug propaganda lyrics misses all the censors to get in the
Billboard top 10.
Love 7 And & 7 Is
L.A’s underground Sun Gods before The Doors popped up in late 66’ and signed to the
same record label (Elektra) on Arthur Lee’s recommendation. Acid fuelled angst,
proto punk garage. Love’s only top 40 hit smashes you in the teeth and leaves a
splinter of blues under your fingernail. Their seminal record ‘Forever Changes’
was released a year later.
Janis Joplin – Ball & Chain (Monterey
The first two albums by Janis’s band ‘Big Brother & The Holding
Company’ were mostly demo’s and a major label botch job. The live cut of
this track from The Monterey Pop Festival (studio version is on Cheap Thrills)
captures the band at their peak & made them superstars overnight. Janis was
the Queen of San Francisco right until her death in 1970 aged 27. Check out
her final record ‘Pearl
The Seeds – Pushin’ Too Hard
L.A’s hippest garage band for one heady summer in 1966. The Seeds had the perfect blend of the West Coast punk/psych/garage sound until late 67, when they recorded their acid fuelled 3rd lp, ‘Future’. Sky Saxon (great
name) wrote hit "Pushin' Too Hard" in under 15 minutes sitting alone in a car, while he was waiting for his girlfriend to finish the weekly food shop. The lyrics can be interpreted about his girlfriend wanting to control him, or as a rant against 'The Establishment'.
The Grateful Dead – That’s It For The Other
One
You can’t have an iconic West Coast list without
Jerry Garcia’s band in there. The Dead were always the furthest ones out there ,
but you never heard how far until 68’s Anthem Of The Sun. Recorded over a 6
month period, with Bob Weir even asking producers to record the illusion of
‘thick air’. This track shows the development of their live sound recorded onto
a studio record and is a barometer for future live adventures. Dark Star pts 1
and 2 off Live Dead from 69’ were the two tracks
that got me into buying their records. But the seminal duo of records from 1970,
‘Workingmans Dead & ‘American Beauty’ are by far my favourite Dead albums.
The Doors – When The Music’s Over
Another shoe-in for the LA icons list. The Door’s
first two albums each had one lengthy track on them. (The End on ‘The Doors’ début) These extended song structures were
formed by playing & jamming them out live during late 65 & early 1966 at The
London Fog & The Whiskey-A-Go-Go on La's strip. This particular track didn't actually appear until a year later on the Strange Days Lp. Jim
Morrison was the Golden God or ‘Lizard King’ in L.A from the Summer of 67' (after the
smash #1 Light My Fire) until the Spring of 69’ when he decided to
throw off his Lizard King/Electric Shaman shackles, & get his John Thomas out in
Miami in order to be taken more seriously as a poet. After being barred from almost every live concert hall & arena in the US, Jim morphed into my
favourite Morrison period ‘The Bearded Drunk Blues Singer’. Subsequent albums, Morrison Hotel & L.A Woman were a refreshing turn of events after the
plasticity of The Soft Parade, & the cobbled together nature of the Waiting
For The Sun album.
Crosby, Stills Nash & Young – You Don’t
Have To Cry
A trio that formed after David Crosby had been
kicked out The Byrds, & the disintegration of Buffalo Springfield had left
Stephen Stills unemployed. Crosby , Stills & Nash got together at a party in Mama Cass’s house after
they realised they had a unique vocal harmony sound. Crosby was the ‘Lord of the
Laurel Canyon’ community, as Nash put it, “He always had the best girls, the
best drugs, the best parties, of course I was gonna join them” Their first Lp
was an immediate hit with 2 smash singles. But with Stills being the prominent
musician in the trio, they needed more personnel to undertake a tour. Neil Young
joined in mid 69’ to make it a
super-super-group. CSN&Y’s blend of harmonies & country melodies unwittingly
paved the way for the next phase of Californian music, AOR Soft Country,
with The Eagles picking up the L.A reigns.
Movers & shakers from the West Coast to click on & check
out. Includes one or two more heavyweights and some classic garage/psych bands. Enjoy
& explore.
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