CLASSIC ROCK

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Kinks................ Lola

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1967

Beginning in 1966, Florida cousins James Purify and Robert Lee Dickey-know professionally as James and Bobby Purify--usually recorded at Muscle Shoals,Alabama.However,their cover of the Five DuTones' 1963 R&B song Shake a Tail Feather came from Chips Moman's American Studio in Memphis where the Box Tops also recorded their hits. At American, the duo worked with guitarist Reggie Young,keyboardist Bobby Emmons,bassist Tommy Cogbill and drummer Gene Chrisman- the crew that played on hits for Neil Diamond, Dusty Springfield and Elvis Presley.

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Joe Tex,born Joseph Arrington Jr,in Rogers,Texas (he nicknaned himself after his home state),won a trip to New York in a Houston talent show and then won a talent competition at New York's Apollo Theater.Tex recorded for King records in 1955,and later for the Anna and Ace labels,but his real sucess came in 1961 after he met Buddy Killen,an executive with the country music publishing company Tree Music. Killen formed Dial Records with Tex as principal artist,and the two worked together throughout Tex's carrer.

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Joe Tex and Buddy Killen almost disolved their relationship in 1964 when Tex grew frustrated with his prospects for major stardom. In what was to be their final session,Tex recorded Hold What You've Got but made Killen promise not to release it. Convinced that he had a smash, Killen went back on his promise,and the song became Tex's first pop hit. His first million seller,though, was Skinny Legs and All, a novelty song featuring Tex's trademark preaching.

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1967

Herbert Feemster of Washington, D.C. made his first record for the Date label in 1966 as Herb Fame.Francine Barker,who had also recorded for Date,joined Fame on a nightclub bandstand one evening, and the chemistry seemed promising. The duo approached Van "The Hustle" McCoy, who dubbed them Peaches and Herb. Their first record,Let's fall in Love, charted,and their follow-up, a recording of the Five Keys' Close Your Eyes, catapulted them into the top 10.

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The Doors .................L.A. Woman

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Ode to Billie Joe

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1967

For many music lovers,1967 was so full of milestones that the year came to define the very nature of popular music. Particlarly in San Francisco, three events shaped the idea that rock was indeed a progressive art from. Dis jockey Tom Donahue inaugurated free-format FM radio on KMPX, Jann Wenner published Rolling Stone and a huge open-air festival in Golden Gates Park,billed as the Human Be-In, was created,along with a follow-up festival,Monterey Pop.

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1967

The notion of progressive rock was underscored by the release of the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper. During the next few years , the major American record companies spent fortunes recording and publicizing the sound of progressive rock. But while the press and industry discussed "art and progress," wellcrafted pop continued to blast forth from the AM radio--often out of nowhere.

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1967

From Chickasaw County,Mississippi, Bobbie Gentry, a former philosophy major at UCLA, played a hypnotic,bluesy guitar lick woven around a tale about a mysterious jump from the Tallahatchie Bridge. Like a Flannery O'Conner story, Old to Billie Joe evoked the atmosphere of the Deep South. "I don't sing white and I don't sing colored," Gentry once said. "I sing southern." With dramatic cellos embellishing the music and Gentry's drawl enchancing the narrative, the record topped the charts, catapulting the Mississippian into the world of show business.

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James Taylor ....................Fire & Rain

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Soul Finger

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From New York came a song that created great controversy,Society's Child, a ballad about miscegenation,was not the sort of song AM disc jockeys were used to playing. Written and recorded by Janis Ian, a 16-year-old folk singer influenced by Joan Baez, the song was released on Verve, a label that had already recorded two other controversial groups of the time,the Velvet Underground and the Mothers of Invention. The initial popularity of the record arose out of a television special on rock. Leonard Berstein,conductor for the New York Philharmonic, introduced the diminutive Miss Ian,who performed her song about a white girl's love for a young black man.

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For sincere teeny-boppers, there was James Barry Keefer,otherwise known as Keith, a seemingly shy kid from Philadephia who scored with a song about body temperature, 98.6. Like Scott McKenzie's San Francisco that same year, Keoth's song echoed the sentment that ran through many 1967 pop songs: the belief in peace and love as the path to world harmony. despite his good vibes, Keith had some bad luck. two months before 98.6 went top 10, his first single. Ain't Gonna Lie,climbed the charts but dropped instantly when it was discovered that most copies had been pressed off-center. Even worse, at the height of his popularity, Keith got a call from Uncle Sam and was shipped off to New Jersey.

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I've been lonely too long

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The Doors................ Riders On The Storm

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San Francisco recordings were often relaxed and experimental, records made in Los Angeles were frequently polished and professional.

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The Beat Goes on

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Nazareth.................. Love Hurts

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Consisting of six members, the Association supplemented their harmonies with an array of instrumentals. Clean-cut unrebellious in an age of long hair and revolt, the group appealed to sophisticated young adults.Ironically, the Association's career was launched by the misconception that their first record, Along Comes Mary, was about the highs of marijuana. Windy boasted a complex arrangement and a soft sound guaranteed to attract radio listeners who had grown weary of Folk-rock and the British Invasion.