Biff! Bang! Pow!, Pt.1

From Beat To Paisley Pop

About this time last year, I was revisiting the music of the mid-60's 'British Invasion.' After picking up a copy of 'Bam-Caruso's 'Waxworks, Vol.1, No.1,' I then began to get drawn into the 'freakbeat' sound, exploring and uncovering some of the participants of that difficult to pinpoint gray area of musical transition. Of course at the time of it's genesis, their was officially no such name for this musical sub-genre. The term 'freakbeat' was coined by Bam-Caruso's founder decades later to distinguish that brief, elusive window in U.K. pop when 'beat' music was morphing into 'paisley-pop' and 'psychedelic.' To quote the liner notes of 'Waxworks,' 'freakbeat' is a name describing "music that was removed from the Summer of Love, was removed from Beat, and did not contain the R&B hallmarks of wailing harmonica and Bo Diddley shuffle. It was pop music, but not as we knew it. It was out of control. The fact that it was originally issued at all by major record labels and expected to be played on daytime radio was outrageous!"

Now, music labels are annoying, I know. But in describing the volatile English pop music scene between 1964 and 1966, they are extremely useful, as a only a few months could make a significant difference in the image and sound of a pop group. Things were changing that rapidly! One only need look as far as the amazing transformation of The Beatles --- from the playful innocence of 'A Hard Day's Night,' to the exuberant command of 'Help!,' continuing upward into the dusky romanticism of 'Rubber Soul,' to finally set down with the stark and experimental 'Revolver;' an extremely fertile span of just 2 years --- in order to see the escalated evolution. In the extreme, one might have seen their favorite lovable, mop-topped 'beat group' decked-out in tailored suits and Cuban-heels one week, only to be garbed as paisley princes with Nehru jackets and ruffled shirts a mere 18 weeks later, singing of rainbows, kaleidoscopes and mystical forests.

Since this music was uniquely British, a considerable amount of 'freakbeat' never washed ashore here in the States. The major players were known of course, but the less successful 'one-hit wonders' failed to make the Trans-Atlantic jump to American airwaves; some with good reason, others sadly as our loss. It's important to understand however that no one actually set out to produce a 'freakbeat' sound. The elements that comprise it where merely an organic part of the rapidly changing English youth culture, where the 'latest' could be sorely outdated by week's end! The music therefore reflected that with quantum leaps in sophistication, where lesser pop music makers strived at best, to keep ahead of the pack and at the least, to stay abreast.

With today's abundance of reissues flooding the CD market --- all geared toward the insatiable appetite of collectors --- we can now 40 years later discover many of the aforementioned 'wonders' that were once lost to time outside the British Isles.

Biff! Bang! Pow! became an on-going series of mixes I assembled, attempting to loosely trace the musical progression from beat through rave-up, freakbeat, paisley pop and even psychedelic. I was in the early stages of my exploration of England's hitmakers when Vol.1 was compiled, therefore it may not contain the earthshaking revelations a serious music enthusiast might expect to find. In fact, the mix doesn't even contain U.K. artists exclusively; a few of America's answers to the 'British Invasion' are included, but it still makes for a fun primer and a pure pop listening experience. Give it a spin!

1. Lies/The Knickerbockers
2. He's Got No Love/The Searchers
3. I Feel Fine/The Beatles
4. Here I Go Again/The Hollies
5. I Can't Explain/The Who
6. 19th Nervous Breakdown/The Rolling Stones
7. Come On Now/The Kinks
8. It's Alright With Me/The Zombies
9. Trampoline/The Spencer Davis Group
10. How Can It Be/The Birds
11. Never Ever/The Action
12. Goodbye, My Love/The Searchers
13. Take It Home/The Utopia Band
14. I'll Make You Happy/The Easybeats
15. Cara-Lin/The Sorrows
16. I Wanna Make It With You/The Smoke
17. Channel 6, The Hot One/Breaker
18. Pictures Of Lily/The Who
19. Go Now/The Moody Blues
20. She's A Woman/The Beatles
21. Try It/The Attack
22. Happy Boys Happy/The Small Faces
23. Woman/The Zombies
24. Run, Run, Run/The Birds
25. Laugh, Laugh/The Beau Brummels
26. The Happy Hour News/Breaker
27. I Take What I Want/The Sorrows
28. Wake Up, Cherylina/The Smoke
29. I Can't Let Go/The Hollies
30. Friday On My Mind/The Easybeats
31. You Really Got Me/The Kinks
32. My Generation/The Who

To download, click here.

Lights Out, San Francisco

Tell Me A Bedtime Story

With my previous post regarding the live recordings of Cannonball Adderley, I was reminded of the legendary Rick Holmes. Those familiar with Cannonball's oeuvre will recognize Holmes as the narrator of Adderley's 'Soul Of The Bible,' 'Soul Zodiac' and the funky 'Love, Sex And The Zodiac,' as well as the master of ceremonies on a few of Cannonball's live LP's from that same era. Rick also recorded a very rare crate diggers single with Roy Ayers on the Gold Mink label called 'Remember To Remember' b/w 'To The Unknowledgeable One'.

At the time of those recordings, Rick was an influential DJ at Southern California's primary jazz outlet, KBCA-FM. Migrating north shortly thereafter, Rick ended up at 'KREativeRadio' KRE, an independently owned and operated 'progressive jazz' station broadcasting from the Berkeley marina across the bay from San Francisco where he added his unique joie de vivre. KRE was one of the older radio stations in the Bay Area (sporting only 3 call letters as opposed to 4, which were later implemented) and had gone through many incarnations. By the 1970's, the station (spurred by the groundbreaking KSAN) embraced the burgeoning 'jazz fusion,' programming a free-form mix of roughly 60% fusion and 30% straight-ahead and modern jazz with the remaining 10% comprised of r&b, soul, reggae, blues and salsa. Within the course of an hour, one could hear anything from James Brown to Charles Mingus, The Pat Metheny Group to Ornette Coleman, Mahavishnu Orchestra to Duke Ellington, Jan Garbarek to Jackie McLean, with others such as Marley, Puente and Jimmy Reed thrown in for good measure (you get the picture?). A heady and thoroughly satisfying mix of great music! Add to this the fact that the FM programming was simulcast on the AM band and you had one hell of a jazz station!

When I arrived at KRE (fresh off the boat as a college dropout), I was humbled, but high to be working alongside Holmes ('In Your Home Sweet Home'), program director Rob Singleton, my mentor Roy Lee Freeman and friends Donnell Lewis and Clifford Brown, Jr. to name a few. On any given day you might have encountered Abbey Lincoln sitting in the lobby awaiting an on-air interview while down the hallway, someone like Joe Henderson could be plugging the soda machine for cold beverage. Because of the stations close proximity to the Fantasy Records studios (by then a jazz powerhouse), many musicians who found themselves in town would drop by unannounced to hangout and simply shoot the shit. Additionally, I suppose because KRE was also one of the few stations to have wholly supported 'jazz fusion,' made it a likely and beneficial destination for many of it's practitioners.

Starting out on weekends, I eventually moved to a late night spot where I had complete reign to explore the library and play most anything my heart desired. Being new to broadcasting and admittedly even newer to jazz (although I always had a proclivity for jazz oriented sounds)*, my tenure there was an adventurous awakening and learning experience! Though I wouldn't dare claim to have been one of the shining lights at KRE, I would like to think that my contributions were advantageous to the station and rewarding to anyone who was out there listening.

The following playlist closely recreates one of my typical late night dispatches (sans on-air patter), although is does not attempt to approximate the overall sound of 'KREative' KRE. No one dictated what was to be played or when (other than whether it fit into the larger scheme of things). Each DJ had their own unique style and audience which reflected not only their own tastes, but those of their day-part listeners as well. So, if it were 'closing time' in the Bay Area on any given night 'round the mid-70's, 'Tell Me A Bedtime Story' might be what you would have heard at 102.9 on the FM dial and 1400 on the AM side.

1. Tell Me A Bedtime Story/Herbie Hancock
2. Nostalgia/Eddie Henderson
3. Walking In Space/Quincy Jones
4. Love Is Better/Hampton Hawes
5. Passion Flower/Grover Washington, Jr.
6. Walter Bishop, Jr./Bennie Maupin
7. Before The Dawn/Patrice Rushen
8. Tres Palabras/Joe Henderson
9. Houston St., Thursday Afternoon/Bobby Hutcherson
10. J.B.'s Mind/Hampton Hawes
11. The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbeque (Pt.2)/Don Preston Trio

To download, click here**

*Truth be told, I conjoled my way into an on-air position. Having only done an absolutely minimal amount of radio work in college and at a very small Mid-Western commercial station, I knocked on the program directors door with all the naiveté of the neophyte I was, stating something ridiculously akin to "I've done a little bit of broadcasting and think I would make a great disc jockey at your station! Any chance that you're hiring?" I honestly believe the PD was so taken back by my guilelessness that he thought, "What the hell!? I'll let him do an on-air audition, if only for the laughs!" With that, I immediately went home and listened to the station 18 hours a day for a solid week, studying each DJ's approach, all the while taking copious notes on the artists, record titles and selections that I liked. Then on the day of my audition, I merely emulating everything I'd absorbed in the previous week. For all practical purposes, my bluff worked! I later received a call asking if I'd like to work a weekend shift and from that point on, I assimilated all I could in what was probably the most intense learning workshop to which I have ever committed!

**When unzipping this file, a folder will appear labeled 'Tres Palabras.' Despite the name, it is the correct file.

If you'd like to learn more about the rich history of KRE, please visit The California Historical Radio Society and their KRE Project page. Sadly, the historical archives end with 1972 when 'KREativeRadio' KRE debuted. However, the years prior do tell an engaging story.

Cookin' With Cannonball

Over the last few weeks I've been listening to a variety of Cannonball Adderley recordings while enjoying the warm days and foggy nights that have populated the month of August, here on the California coast. Cannonball always had a great band and the following mix showcases this with 8 live tracks taken from 3 separate recordings by the sometimes 'expanded and floating' Quintet.

Throughout his career, Adderley released many live recordings, especially during his Capitol years. Whether he himself had a predilection for capturing his musicians on the bandstand or the aforementioned record label merely found it more cost efficient to bring a mobile unit to one of his many gigs is lost to me. Either way, we are the benefactors of this plethora of live dates.

Now for me, live recordings are frequently a mixed blessing. While we do get to hear a performance of which we may not have otherwise been privy, more often than not these aural documents miss their mark in managing to capture the true essence of a stage performance. But one factor other than the high level of musicianship that make these particular Cannonball recordings so listenable --- is that they were all small club dates. The intimacy of the rooms propelled the musicians to greater intensity and that connection, interplay and warmth made for a better transition to the end product. The tracks featured here are taken from 'The Cannonball Adderley Quintet In Person,' 'The Black Messiah' and 'Music, You All'. The first was recorded at Basin Street West in San Francisco and the latter two at The Troubadour in Los Angeles, 1968, '70 and '72 respectively. In addition to Cannonball, the band members include brother Nat Adderley (of course), Joe Zawinul, Victor Gaskin and Roy McCurdy on 'In Person,' and Nat, George Duke, Walter Booker, Airto Moreira and McCurdy again on 'Music, You All.' Add to that core unit, the talents of Ernie Watts, Alvin Battiste, Mike Deasey and Buck Clark making cameos on 'The Black Messiah.'

All edits are all of my own design with the exception of the two sloppiest which are part of the original recording and for which I take absolutely no responsibility. Spot those and win a prize.

1. Rumpelstiltskin/In Person
2. Sweet Emma/In Person
3. Eye Of The Cosmos/The Black Messiah
4. Dr. Honouris Cousa/The Black Messiah
5. The Black Messiah/The Black Messiah
6.Capricorn/Music, You All
7. Music, You All/Music, You All
8.The Scene/Music, You All

To download, click here and reap the rich rewards!

If you would like to learn more about Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley, you might want to check out The Cannonball Adderley Rendez-Vous, a website for all things Cannonball.

The First (All Things Must Pass)

he ideal inaugural post should probably serve as a mission statement of sorts; an all-encompassing declaration of intent designed to pique the interest and curiosity the reader into delving further into the heart of the Blog. That however is a lofty goal and one in which I am not yet entirely prepared to fulfill. Having only recently arrived in the vast world of blogging, it is a medium I must first try on, play around with and grow into, slowly discovering it's strengths and weaknesses, as well as my own within it. An interest in sharing music and firsthand tales of urban adventure (and misadventure!) are the most fundamental components of purpose for my creating Birds With Broken Wings. Equally important however is my extreme, almost palpable craving for some yet-to-be-as-satisfying outlet of expression, a release I've lacked since abandoning radio broadcasting years ago. That said, I might hope that encouraging comments from those of you that have stumbled upon this humble blog, will help me in molding the ultimate direction of BWBW, thereby assisting me in finding that elusive conduit.

All Things Must Pass

In the spirit of 'free-form' radio, the first mix featured here at BWBW seeks to approximate the sound of San Francisco's once mighty KSAN-FM in it's heyday. For those of you unfamiliar with KSAN, you'll find a 'Jive95' link in the right-hand column under 'Recommended Sites'. This labor of love compiled by Norman Davis, will give you a nearly complete (and fascinating) history of the station which gave rise to 'underground' radio in the late 1960's. I feel honored to know and to have worked alongside Norman, as well as many of the other architects of this pioneering radio station over the years and am forever in awe of their collective talent and vision. It's difficult to explain the immense impact of their creative approach to commercial broadcasting in today's radio world. So much of what they implemented has been borrowed, yet sadly homogenized beyond recognition to anyone without a keen historical frame of reference. Perhaps in time, I will attempt to expound on this further. Meanwhile, I'll simply say that I firmly believe FM radio as we know it in the 21st Century, owes an insurmountable debt to the ground broken by The Ace of the Airwaves, Jive95.

Now to many ears today, the playlist below is merely a salty set of 'classic rock' oldies. But if you lived in the San Francisco Bay Area (or anywhere for that matter!) in the late 1960's/early 70's and heard these tracks delivered with the bonhomie of the KSAN air staff, you would have immediately found yourself in Groover's Paradise. FM radio had never sounded like this! However, Jive95 was about so much more than just the music (although they did touch on nearly every genre), it was also a new attitude in radio with informed DJ's, laid-back vibes, funny commercials, socially-conscious news reporting and superior stereo sound all on a frequency band that had previously been neglected.

The KSAN mix includes the following titles and is labeled 'All Things Must Pass.'

1. All Things Must Pass/George Harrison

2. The Black-Eyed Blues/Joe Cocker
3. Write Me A Few Of Your Lines:Kokomo/Bonnie Raitt
4. Roll Away The Stone/Leon Russell
5. Bell-Bottom Blues/Derek & The Dominoes
6. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart/Al Green
7. Somebody Loan Me A Dime/Boz Scaggs
8. Maybe/Janis Joplin & The Kosmic Blues Band
9. Into The Mystic/Van Morrison
10. More Or Less Hudson Bay Again/The Masked Marauders
11. Cow Pie/The Masked Marauders
12. Shouldn't Have Took More Than You Gave/Dave Mason
13. Amazing Journey:Sparks/The Who
14. Handbags And Gladrags/Rod Stewart
15. Arcadian Driftwood/The Band

To download, click here.