THE LOADING ZONE - "Don't Lose Control (Of Your Soul)" (1968)

 

Let's talk about Linda Tillery aka Sweet Linda Divine, because if you don't know who she is, then you should, and I'm gonna take care of that for you right now, or at least some of it in this, and my next two posts.

Linda has a voice from the heart, and if that ain't enough, she plays the drums too.

Her first gig was with the San Francisco band called The Loading Zone, and they came out with this album in 1968.

I read that when The Loading Zone opened up for Big Brother And The Holding Company one time, after the gig, and because Linda was so awesome, Janis Joplin said she didn't ever want that band opening for them again because Linda's vocals made her look bad.

For a long time, I thought this was one of the strangest album covers I'd ever seen, especially back in 1968. 

THE LOADING ZONE - "Don't Lose Control (Of Your Soul)

CORNERSHOP - "Handcream For A Generation" (2002)

 

I don't exactly know why, but I really like Cornershop and their take on popular music. I will admit sometimes it goes on repetitiously for too long, but other than that, it's full of surprises and it's made to dance to!

Cornershop were from Wolverhampton, UK and formed in 1991 by brothers Tjinder and Avtar Singh. The group is fleshed out by David Chambers and Ben Ayres.

This album titled "Handcream For A Generation" was their fourth, and came out in 2002, and is well worth a listen.

CORNERSHOP - "People Power" 

One Last Swim Before Summer's End - Webb Wilder And The Beatnecks, Poolside (1986)

 

Rich here. And here it is, October already! Living in the Pacific Northwest, I always lament the end of Summer, which is that all-too-short wonderfully beautiful, temperate period before our gray days and rain return.

 

So before the Pacific NW Gloom Descends altogether with Daylight Savings Time, it's a perfect time to remember the best days of our long 70-degree days, tanned bodies in shorts and t-shirts, baseball as it's meant to be played (in the sunshine), and hanging around the pool. 

 

And who better to capture the quirkiness of the best summertime poolside culture than the underknown rock 'n' roll humorist, Webb Wilder, whose music Wikipedia describes as a combination of "straight-ahead rock & roll with the surf guitar of the Ventures and the twang of Duane Eddy, drawing on the feel of blues, R&B, country/rockabilly and film noir . . .(and a) sound incorporating influences from Americana music as well as from the British Invasion." Now, THAT's a great bio that interests me!

 Happy swimming, poolsiders!

WEBB WILDER AND THE BEATNECKS - "Poolside" 

KEEP ON TRUCKIN' (1937 - 1971)

 

In 1968 Robert Crumb introduced the underground world to truckin' with this comic strip.

 

In 1969, the Los Angeles band Spirit released this album called "Clear," and on it was a song titled

I'M TRUCKIN'

In 1970, The Grateful Dead released an LP called "American Beauty," and on it was probably one of the most iconic truckin' songs.

TRUCKIN' 

 

Also in 1970, a much more obscure band, a group from Wisconsin by the name of Tongue released this album called "Keep On Truckin' With Tongue," and something a little closer to the original version.

KEEP ON TRUCKIN'

Then in 1971, Eddie Kendricks took his turn at Truckin' lyrics.

KEEP ON TRUCKIN'

Over the years there's been Truckin' songs by everybody from Dave Dudley to Hot Tuna, but most people agree that the original concept was that of Blind Boy Fuller, and this 78 RPM release in 1937.

TRUCKING MY BLUES AWAY No.2 

THE QUINTET OF THE HOT CLUB DE FRANCE FEATURING DJANGO REINHARDT & STEPHANE GRAPPELLY - "Limehouse Blues" (1942)

 

Django Reinhardt is considered by many to be the greatest guitar player in all of history, and he definitely, and without a doubt, is the best two-fingered guitar player that ever existed.

In 1928 a fire caused by a candle severely damaged his hand, and only left him with the two fingers functioning on that hand, but somehow, through sheer determination, he managed to work through it.

Django and violinist Stephane Grappelly were a duo who made music that is unsurpassed to this day.

After some 30 years, Stephane changed his name back to it's original spelling as Grappelli, and I was lucky enough to see him perform in the seventies as that name. It was one of the most beautiful concerts I have ever attended. 

The band was fleshed out with bassist Louis Vola, and rhythm guitarists Roger Chaput and Joseph Reinhardt (Django's brother). 

Here's a little sample of why people think these guys were so magnificent. 

THE QUINTET OF THE HOT CLUB DE FRANCE - "Limehouse Blues"   

TOMMY JAMES - "Christian Of The World" (1971)

 

I'll admit that I probably wasn't really paying a lot of attention back in 1971, so I guess it slipped by me that Tommy James was throwing his whole religious card into the game of music.

I mean the cover from his solo LP called "Christian Of The World" was pretty much a 100% giveaway, but I am one of those who didn't realize that "Draggin' The Line," along with his smash hit with The Shondells, "Crimson And Clover" were Christian songs.

What a brilliant disguise! 

While not overtly Christian, this song is about Christian values.

Two different charts had this song at #2, and #4 in the U.S. 

Tommy James - "Draggin' The Line" 

THE GUESS WHO - "It's My Pride" (1966)

 

I thought I was pretty familiar with the music by The Guess Who, but I heard this song the other day, and had to look it up to see who the artist was because it really didn't sound like anybody I knew about.

 

 

This song wasn't really on any of their early albums but was the 'B' side of their first single release from 1966 called "His Girl," and it just might be the most raw and rockin' song in their vast catalogue of great music!

This sounds like it was off one of the "Nuggets" LP's. 

 

It was however on this 2003 Greatest Hits CD titled "Anthology."

THE GUESS WHO - "It's My Pride" 

ANTHONY MOORE - "World Service" (1981)

 

This 1981 LP by Anthony Moore titled "World Service" is very cool and chock full of good music if you're not familiar with it.

I really dig the song "Broke'n Idle" but the version I like is much shorter than the one I found on YouTube, so as an introduction to Anthony's music, I think this song is a better choice.

If you like it, then go and listen to the long version of  "Broke'n Idle" too, because you'll like that one also!

ANTHONY MOORE - "Run Right Back"    

THE GODZ - "Contact High With The Godz" (1966)

 

The Godz were the third member of the 1960's ESP trifecta of talent along with The Fugs, and Pearls Before Swine, and they released this LP called "Contact High With The Godz" in 1966.

Talk about raw, here they completely destroy this classic Hank Williams' song, and didn't even use the correct title which was "May You Never Be Alone"

THE GODZ - "May You Be Alone (Hank Williams)"

ONE-HIT WONDERS, PT 2 - Crabby Appleton ("Go Back," 1970)

 

Rich here. By the end of the Sixties the Album-Era had definitely arrived. It wasn't just the Beatles and The Who and The Beach Boys making great albums, anymore. Many of the major bands liked the freedom that making an album provided, with longer songs and thematic & sonic experimentations, and some of them were turning away from making singles altogether.

 

But making albums was an expensive proposition, and a band had to earn a certain level of stature and experience before the record company would give them the budget to make an album.

 

All of which meant a band needed to score some hit singles first, and the early '70s were full of one-hit wonders -- bands that recorded their best song as a single, which might go on to garner lots of radio play and an admirable showing on the singles charts. But, oftentimes, a band was unable to follow up their hit single with another record its equal. 

 

But, indeed, there were some GREAT one-hit wonders in the early '70s. And one of my favorites was by Crabby Appleton. No, not the villain from the animated Tom Terrific cartoons on the daily Captain Kangaroo TV show, but a band who released a terrific single in 1970.

 

"Go Back" is a radio-friendly rocker full of fizzy guitar riffs, hard-charging drums & percussion fills, lots of guitar-jangle, and a catchy straight-through-to-the-chorus by a commanding lead singer whose occasional welps explode into the mix. 

 

"Go Back" was unquestionably as good as songs being released by other bands from the newly emerging Power Pop movement, like Badfinger, The Raspberries, and Big Star -- but, unfortunately, just like their one-hit-wonder brethren Sugarloaf, nothing else by Crabby Appleton ever made a dent on the charts. Nonetheless, the song remains a classic power pop gem.

CRABBY APPLETON - "Go Back" 

CRAZY ELEPHANT - Gimme Gimme Good Lovin' (1969)

 

Crazy Elephant was another one of those bands that was created by Kasenetz-Katz in the studio, and they also have the notoriety of being another of the 60's one hit wonders.

The record came out in 1969, and this single made it to number 12 on the charts.

This is not really one of my favorite songs, but it ain't bad in a goofy kind of way, but more than anything, I like this video, because it's always amazing how you can take footage of people dancing, and it will almost always be in sync with the music, and using footage of some of the TV goddesses of the 60's is sheer genius.  

CRAZY ELEPHANT - Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'

YUSEF LATEEF - "The Blue Yusef Lateef" (1968)

 

To say it simply, Yusef Lateef was a musical genius!

He taught a course at The Manhattan School Of Music in "Autophysiopsychic Music,"aka "Music From The Heart," and he had the creds to back it up.

Yusef played Tenor Sax, and Flute, but he also experimented with other instruments and was known to also record with the Oboe, Bassoon and anything else that had a mouthpiece.

He was literally making "World Music," before it was even a term. 

Here's about the most standard blues song I've ever heard by Yusef, and it just shows how versatile he really was. I dig this song because it swings, and is so unlike most of the man's music!

This tune sounds like it was from some low budget 60's horror movie, and you can't get much cooler than that! 

Another saxophonist by the name of Buddy Lucas is the one blowin' the harp! 

Yusef Lateef - "Othelia" 

RUSTY DRAPER - "In The Middle Of The House" (1956)

 

Farrell Haliday Draper, aka Rusty Draper, at one time was one of the biggest pop and country crossover stars of the 50's, but that was a long time ago, so you probably have never heard of him.

I had this record as a little kid, and I always thought this song was the 'B' side.

Another singer named Vaughn Monroe also released this same song a couple of weeks earlier than Rusty Draper. 

Monroe's version made it to number eleven, and Rusty's version peaked at 24 on the charts. On a separate set of charts, Rusty's was one notch higher.

The song was so damn popular in the UK that there were three different versions in November of 1956 on the UK charts, one by Alma Cogan, one by Jimmy Parkinson, and one by The Johnston Brothers.

That's crazy! 

The writer Bob Hilliard must have been in heaven to see his song in the charts in the same year by five different artists.

I hope he made a lot of money!

RUSTY DRAPER - "In The Middle Of The House" 

THE BUGGLES - "The Age Of Plastic" (1980)

 

This album titled "The Age Of Plastic" by The Buggles in 1980 had the song "Video Killed The Radio Star" on it which made it to number one in 16 countries, but only made in to number 40 on the U.S. charts.

 

Whatever you do, don't get The Buggles mixed up with Sid and Marty Krofft's The Bugaloos.

 

Or even worse, the world's most obnoxious kid's show, "The Teletubbies."

 

The Buggles' music might be very cartoonlike but they are much better than that!

Here's the proof! Try to not tap your foot!!

THE BUGGLES - "Clean Clean"

THE COLLECTORS - "She (Will-O-The-Wind)" (1968)

 

It was suggested to me by my friend Robert Lindsey to give this 1968 album by The Collectors a try, so I did, and I remember this album cover, but I don't think I ever owned this one.

The Collectors were from Canada, and started out in 1961 as the CFUN Classics, and they recorded two singles in 1963, one as The Classics, and one as The Canadian Classics before morphing into The Collectors, and in 1969 they became Chilliwack.

There is one song on this album that is a 19 minutes and 15 second long suite. That's ambitious but I like this one better.

THE COLLECTORS - "She (Will-O-The-Wind)" 

RICHIE HASS AND THE BEATNIKS - "I Wanna Be On "Lost In Space" (1986)

 

Richie Hass was mostly a writer and a sideman percussionist on projects by Zoogz Rift, John Trubee And The Ugly Janitors of America and others. With his band Richie Hass And The Beatniks, he didn't really have any releases, but he did put out a single in 1980 as Richie Hass And The Solutions.

Unfortunately Richie's life was cut short in 2008 due to cancer. 

 

This song was one of two songs Richie had on this various artists compilation LP from 1986 titled "Obscure Independent Classics: Volume 3 - It Was Clearly The Belgian That Was Tampering With The Pilchard."

Just in case you're wondering, a pilchard is a type of sardine. 

Too bad he didn't get a chance to do more, because he obviously had a great sense of humor as this song will attest to! 

RICHIE HASS AND THE BEATNIKS - "I Wanna Be On "Lost In Space" 

The Alternative to Alternative™- Sam Phillips - "Where the Colors Don't Go" (1991)

 

Rich here. You know, it's always struck me weird that when Grunge was so dominantly popular in the Nineties, it was called "ALTERNATIVE MUSIC." I mean, the sheer popularity of Grunge meant that it was the mainstream, not the alternative.

 

Meanwhile, all the music of the late '70s and Eighties that had once been referred to as "alternative" because it didn't fit neatly on commercial playlists still didn't get much airplay, but it was no longer fashionable to call it "alternative." After all, New Wave, Ska, Power Pop, Neo-Surf, Folk-Punk, Alt-Country, Retrobilly, etc. had been considered "alternative" before Grunge came along and took over sole ownership of the term.

 

Then, there was also the Paisley Underground -- bands and artists who were delving into the psychedelic sounds of the Sixties and updating them. It was a movement that included a revival of Baroque Pop, which hadn't been a popular presence since the late '60s when bands like The Left Banke, The Moody Blues, The Zombies, The Beach Boys, and (of course) The Beatles all released popular songs that featured lush melodies and harmonies accompanied by classical instruments in addition to their rock-band foundations.

 

So it was that I began referring to all these genres as "The Alternative to Alternative™." And one of my favorites was Sam Phillips, who was not the famous 1950's record producer who gave us Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash, and Roy Orbison. The "new" Sam Phillips was a hugely talented young singer-songwriter who wrote impeccable songs with intellectual impulses that challenged popular notions of pop music, truly making her music an alternative to Alternative™, and "Where the Colors Don't Go" from 1991 was a Baroque Pop masterpiece.

SAM PHILLIPS - "Where the Colors Don't Go"  

JOAN JETT, LITA FORD, DORO & LEE AARON — 1980s vs 2026

 

Now this IS cool, and I can honestly say that I think this is the first time I've seen A-I technology put to good use!

I just happened to stumble onto this video, and what a great concept, introduce a bunch of the hard rockin' women of the late 70's and 80's, and show them as they were, as they are now, or as they could be.

Not my favorite kind of music, but what the Hell does that have to do with it, I'm still going to watch this video over and over and over! 

Big kudos to Let's Rewind, job well done!! 

"Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Doro, Lee Aaron and More - 1980s vs 2026" 

COMMANDER CODY AND HIS LOST PLANET AIRMEN - "Lost In The Ozone" (1971)

 

"Lost In The Ozone" by Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen just might be one of the best Country Rock albums of 1971, or at least if it's not the best, it's a damn good one.

There were quite a few bands performing in the alt-country genre that year like The New Riders Of The Purple Sage, The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Byrds and Poco, but Commander Cody really did the best job of getting real Western Swing into the act, or at least that's my humble opinion!

Judge for yourself! 

COMMANDER CODY AND HIS LOST PLANET AIRMEN - "Lost In The Ozone" 

JOE HENDERSON - "Page One" (1963)

 

"Page One" was the first album the brilliant saxophonist Joe Henderson ever recorded.

It came out in 1963 and along with Joe, it featured Kenny Dorham on Trumpet, and the freakin' amazing pianist McCoy Tyner, who only got a credit as "/Etc." on the cover. Wow! 

This album is pretty mellow by Joe Henderson standards, because a lot of the time, musically, Joe liked to color outside the lines.

This is the thing about jazz, if you don't like jazz, then you will probably not like this cut, but if you do like jazz, then you'll love it!

That's just the way jazz works! 

JOE HENDERSON - "Recorda Me"