“You Know What I Mean”
The Turtles
Another Jack Nitzsche produced track, this one comes from the The Turtles third album, Happy Together. The album and probably The Turtles themselves are best known for the title track but the entire record is full of terrific psychedelic pop songs and is well worth listening to from beginning to end.
Marianne Faithfull sings “Hier ou Demain” in this scene from Anna, the 1967 French TV movie musical that starred Anna Karina and featured songs by Serge Gainsbourg, who also appeared on screen.
“It Happens Every Time”
Tim Buckley
I’ve recently been revisiting, or some cases visiting for the first time, much of the work Jack Nitzsche produced in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Some of his best stuff is compiled on The Jack Nitzsche Story: Hearing is Believing 1962-1979. It’s full of amazing tracks from artists all across the musical spectrum: Doris Day, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Stevie Wonder, Lesley Gore, you name it. This track from a 19 year old Tim Buckley, found on his 1966 debut album, was enthusiastically recommended to me by George, and he wasn’t kidding, it’s amazing. Probably about as close as he came to writing a pop song, “It Happens Every Time” clocks in at under two minutes. It’s an epic mini-masterpiece.
“Lady”
Dennis Wilson & Rumbo
Also known as ‘Fallin’ in Love’, the track was originally to be included on the Beach Boys’ album Add Some Music. The record later evolved into the 1970 release of Sunflower, but the track was absent from the album. “Lady” was also rumored to be among the tracks on the record that eventually became Surf’s Up, but once again didn’t make the cut. This version of the song was eventually released in the UK in December of 1970 as a b-side to ‘Sound of Free’ under the moniker Dennis Wilson & Rumbo. Wilson provides the vocals and Daryl Dragon (Rumbo) the instrumentation (Dragon would later come to be known as the Captain of Captain & Tennille). ‘Lady’ and ‘Sound of Free’ are both mired in a legal dispute with Capitol Records and long out of print.
“I’ll Bet She Knew It (Demo)”
Jack Nitzsche
Best known for ‘The Lonely Surfer’, or as Phil Spector’s arranger (an essential contributor to the Wall of Sound), or perhaps as a composer (‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’), Nitzsche had a hand in zillions of records in the 60’s and 70’s (Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, the list goes on…). However in the early 70’s he recorded a singer/songwriter album that was never issued.
This track is a demo recorded around that period. Rhino has released both the unissued record, the demos, and St. Giles Cripplegate, a 1972 recording that featured London Symphony Orchestra performing six original Nitzsche scores, as Three Piece Suite: The Reprise Recordings 1971-1974.
The entire album is worth a listen, especially if you like eccentric pop of the late 60’s early 70’s, but the arrangement on this track is especially amazing.
MINGUS: CHARLES MINGUS 1968 by Thomas Reichman
A fascinating verité portrait of Charles Mingus in his later years, shot while he and his five year old daughter were waiting eviction from their apartment
“The Times They Are A-Changin’”
The Los Angeles Gospel Choir
From the 1969 tribute album, The Gospel According to Dylan, which also includes ‘Lay, Lady, Lay’ and an epic version of ‘All Along the Watchtower’.
Forever Changes: Arthur Lee and the Book of Love by John Einarson, available from Jawbone Press, chronicles the turbulent life of Love frontman Arthur Lee. From his early childhood in Memphis, to South Los Angeles and the Sunset Strip of the 60’s where he and his band recorded the seminal album Forever Changes in 1967.
Lee never found the sort of stardom he seemed poised achieved. He refused to tour, struggled with drugs, and had several brushes with the law that resulted in jail time. Later in his life he was able to mount a comeback, due in part to the rediscovery of Forever Changes, before ultimately passing away from leukemia in 2006.
The previously unreleased Love record from 1973, Black Beauty, will be available June 7th via the new boutique label High Moon Records.
Youth Culture in Japan, 1964 - Photographs by Michael Rougier for LIFE Magazine
Rougier traveled to Japan in 1964 to capture the emerging youth culture for LIFE Magazine. Motorcycles, rock ‘n roll, bonfires on the beach, and late night parties. I’ve put together an extensive selection of his photographs here, in my ‘Collections’ section.
