Variations
on a Theme by Eric Satie and Spinning Wheel are from Blood, Sweat &
Tears, released either in late 1968 or early 1969. Prologue/Someday (August 29, 1968) is from
Chicago Transit Authority, released in 1969. Both BS&T and CTA
were produced by the same guy, James William Guercio.
Easy
To Be Hard is from Three Dog Night’s 2nd album, Suitable For
Framing, which, like their first album, was released in 1969. Easy To Be Hard hit the top of the singles
charts in July 1969—information I got from the group’s web page, which includes
a current photo and has a link that says, “To find out how to book Three Dog
Night please click here.” (History
question: What “giant leap for mankind”
occurred in July 1969, about two weeks before Woodstock?)
You
Should Have Listened to Al and In Brooklyn are from Al Stewart’s second album, Love
Chronicles, released in 1969 and called the “folk album of the year” by
Melody Maker magazine. I bought it in
1974. Jimmy Page plays lead guitar on
this album. Magic Carpet Ride is
from Steppenwolf The Second.
Even though the album came out in 1968, the song is in one of the 1969
scenes from “The Spy Who Shagged Me,” no doubt because it’s a groovy song. I thought it might have been from 69 until I
checked—yes—the Steppenwolf web site.
Jefferson
Airplane’s Volunteers album, their last album together,
was released in November 1969. It’s the
main album that
inspired me to make this tape. The songs on here from the
album are Good Shepherd, Volunteers, We Can Be Together, and A Song for All
Seasons. The Weight is from The
Band’s first album, Music from Big Pink, released in 1968. Jackie DeShannon’s version of the song was
on the radio starting in January or February 1969—the version most people
(including me) first heard.
Woodstock,
written by Joni Mitchell, is on her Ladies of the Canyon album.
The album was released in 1970, but several songs on it, including
Woodstock, have 1969 copyright dates.
One of the anti-war highlights at Woodstock was Country Joe and
the Fish’s (revised) Fish Cheer and
I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag, which both appeared on the group’s 1967
album, I-Feel-Like-I’m Fixin’-To-Die.
Machine gun and other war sounds are part of the original song. I recorded this song, as well as Easy To Be
Hard and Magic Carpet Ride, from a CD called The Summer of Peace, Love and Music, Vol. 3 (1994).
Fortunate
Son is from Creedence’s Willy and the Poor Boys, released in November
1969. Joan Baez singing Joe Hill
was another anti-war highlight at Woodstock. I recorded Joe Hill onto this tape from my
prerecorded Woodstock cassette, which I bought in 1970 when the album
was released.
Bridge
Over Troubled Water was Simon and Garfunkel’s last studio album together, released in 1970. Most of the songs, including The Boxer, have
1969 copyright dates. Can’t
Find My Way Home, by Steve Winwood, is from Blind Faith (1969). Eric Clapton, Rick Grech, and Ginger Baker
were also in the group.
Here
Comes the Sun, from Abbey Road (1969), is by George Harrison. Steppenwolf’s Monster came out in
1969. I had
a cassette copy of it back then, but for this tape I bought a clean vinyl
copy at Papa
Jazz Record Shoppe (in Columbia), where I also bought Canned Wheat Packed by
the Guess Who (1969). The
album version of Undun begins with a brief piano solo.
Sweet
Baby James,
with Carole King on piano, was recorded in December 1969 and released in
1970. Fire and Rain has a 1969
copyright date. Stephen
Foster wrote Oh! Susanna.
The
Beatles, who broke up 30 years ago this month, released different albums in the
United Kingdom and the U.S. Some are
the same, but some U.K. releases were not released in the U.S., and vice-versa. Across the Universe is on Let It Be
(1970), a U.S. release, but the version I used here (nature sounds included) is
in an EMI (U.K.) Beatles collection I borrowed from Trip Martin and recorded in
December 1983. The album the song is
on is called No One’s Gonna Change
Our World, released in 1969. Peace!
DWT April 8,
2000
Side A Side B
Variations
on a Theme by Eric Satie In Brooklyn
Prologue/Someday
(8/29/68) The
Boxer
Spinning
Wheel
Can’t Find My Way Home
Easy
To Be Hard
Here Comes the Sun
You
Should Have Listened to Al We Can Be Together
Magic
Carpet Ride
Monster/Suicide/America
Good
Shepherd
Undun
The
Weight A Song For All Seasons
Woodstock
Fire and Rain
FISH
Cheer and I-Feel-Like-
Across the Universe
I’m-Fixin-To-Die
Rag Oh! Susanna
Fortunate
Son
Volunteers
Joe
Hill
In the clearing stands a boxer,
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of ev’ry glove
that laid him down
And cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame,
“I am leaving, I am leaving.”
But the fighter still remains
Lie-la-lie . . .
Thanks to Deborah for use of equipment and some CD’s,
and encouragement toward finishing this project.
(Lennon/McCartney)
Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup,
they slither while they pass, they slip away Across the
Universe.
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my opened
mind,
possessing and caressing me.
CHORUS:
Jai Guru Deva, Om
Nothing’s gonna change my world. . .
Images of broken light which dance before me like a million
eyes,
they call me on and on Across the Universe.
Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box,
they tumble blindly as they make their way across the
universe.
Chorus
Sounds of laughter, shades of earth are ringing through my
open ears,
inciting and inviting me.
Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million
suns
and calls me on and on Across the Universe.
Chorus
Jai Guru Deva. . .
The individual words “Jai, Guru, Deva, Om “ translate roughly (according to
my research professor from India) as “ victory, teacher, God, universe” with victory being used more as an adjective
than a noun, and also used in the sense of cheering someone on.