Tim Buckley - Tim Buckley (1966)

"Strange Street Affair Under Blue" by Tim Buckley


Buckley started his music career in California.  He had two high school bands: The Bohemians that performed popular hits and eventually originals, and The Harlequin 3 that performed folk music incorporated with spoken word and beat poetry.  He also performed solo through Orange County coffeehouses and at The Troubadour enough to be pegged as a rising star along with songwriting contemporaries Steve Noonan and Jackson Browne.  After being turned on to him by Mothers of Invention drummer Jimmy Carl Black, Holzman signed Buckley to Elektra Records.  Tim signed without his fellow Bohemians but many of them, including his lyricist Larry Beckett and his bassist Jim Fielder, would continue to collaborate with him throughout his career.  Paul A. Rothchild, who produced The Even Dozen Jug Band, would work with Holzman to produce Tim Buckley's debut album Tim Buckley.  The album was released in 1966 alongside two singles when Tim was 19.

Here is the discography surrounding Tim Buckley's debut album:

Wings (1966 single)
Tim Buckley
Aren't You the Girl (1967 single)

"Song Slowly Song" by Tim Buckley


"Grief in My Soul" by Tim Buckley


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The Even Dozen Jug Band - The Even Dozen Jug Band (1964)

The Even Dozen Jug Band by The Even Dozen Jug Band


One of the session musicians for Tim Hardin's debut was harmonica player John B. Sebastian.  Sebastian would later become famous for his songwriting and his folk rock band, but his recording debut came as a member of The Even Dozen Jug Band.  The jug band came out of the end of the Folk Revivalist movement in the early sixties but made a point, unlike its folk contemporaries, of not taking itself seriously.  It's hard to do that anyway if three of your instruments are a washboard, a kazoo, and a jug.  The group emulated the popular recordings of 1920s jug bands and recorded a dozen traditional songs on The Even Dozen Jug Band in 1964 that gave way to comedic performances, sexual innuendos, and dance numbers.  The product came out as an ecstatic mix of blues, ragtime, folk, and dixieland jazz.  Although locally popular, The Even Dozens did not perform much and fell apart as many of the members were students who preferred to stay in school rather than tour for the album.  Many of the members, however, would still go on to have successful careers in the music industry including Sebastian, Maria Muldaur, Steve Katz, Stefan Grossman, Joshua Rifkin, and David Grisman.

Here is the complete discography for The Even Dozen Jug Band:

The Even Dozen Jug Band

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Tim Hardin - Tim Hardin 1 (1966)

"Reason to Believe" by Tim Hardin


One of the covers performed by Hearts and Flowers was "Reason to Believe", a song made more famous by those who covered it than by he who wrote it.  Tim Hardin wrote the song and recorded it on his debut album Tim Hardin 1 from 1966.  Hardin grew as a blues-inspired singer-songwriter out of the Greenwich Village folk scene in the early sixties.  Many of his folky contemporaries such as Karen Dalton and Fred Neil covered his songs in concerts or on their own albums.

Here is the discography surrounding Tim Hardin's debut album:

Don't Make Promises (1966 single)
Tim Hardin 1
Hang On to a Dream (1966 single)

"Hang On to a Dream" by Tim Hardin


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Hearts and Flowers - Now Is the Time for Hearts and Flowers (1967)

"Road to Nowhere" by Hearts and Flowers


After the disbanding of The Scottsville Squirrel Barkers, dobro player Larry Murray moved from band to band before forming Hearts and Flowers with Dave Dawson and Rick Cunha.  Hearts and Flowers joined the folk-rock movement of the late sixties but tended more towards the folk spectrum of it all.  They infused their songs with tints of psychedelia though the country and bluegrass influence proved much stronger.  Their debut album Now Is the Time for Hearts and Flowers came out and 1967 and collected half originals and half covers of contemporary songs by country artists and singer-songwriters.

Here is the discography surrounding Hearts and Flowers's debut album:

Road to Nowhere (1967 single)
Now Is the Time for Hearts and Flowers

"Try for the Sun" by Hearts and Flowers


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The Scottsville Squirrel Barkers - Blue Grass Favorites (1963)

Chris Hillman helped Buffalo Springfield get their first gig at the Whisky a Go Go.  Although Hillman would later be part of a more landmark band, his first recorded output was with the bluegrass outfit The Scottsville Squirrel Barkers.  Hillman (mandolin) led the Barkers that included Larry Murray (dobro), Gary Carr (guitar), Ed Douglas (double bass), and Kenny Wertz (banjo).  They played together for a short period of time in the early sixties in San Diego and recorded one short album named Blue Grass Favorites.  It is important Bernie Leadon (a frequent collaborator of Hillman's) replaced Wertz (who joined the Air Force) on the banjo but did not play on the recording.  Besides Hillman, many of the other Squirrel Barkers would also have lengthy and prosperous careers in the San Francisco and Los Angeles folk-rock scenes.  The band members have reformed for special performances sporadically since 2003.

Here is the complete discography for The Scottsville Squirrel Barkers:

Blue Grass Favorites

2004 Reunion Performance by The Scottsville Squirrel Barkers


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Buffalo Springfield - Buffalo Springfield (1966)

"For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield


After the Au Go-Go Singers broke up, a couple remaining members formed a similar group called The Company for one last tour through the Northeast and Canada.  While touring Ontario, Stills and Furay met a young Neil Young who was playing with surf-rockers The Squires at the time.  Young would go on to play in another band The Mynah Birds where he performed with AWOL American vocalist Rick James and bassist Bruce Palmer.  The Mynah Birds met with difficulties with Rick James's imprisonment and a lack of success that would break the group apart.  Stills, Young, Furay, and Palmer all found their way to California, taken with the LA folk-rock scene.  They found each other when Stills and Furay recognized Neil Young's converted hearse driving in the opposite direction.  Finding out that all four of them flew to LA for the same reason, they decided to form a band whose manager could already find work for them as the house band at the Whisky a Go Go club along Sunset Strip.  Buffalo Springfield made for a five-piece band when they brought in Dewey Martin from Nashville (who had some non-success with the Beatles-esque Sir Raleigh & the Cupons) through the mutual connection of Jim Dickson, manager for The Byrds.

Stills and Young shared songwriting duties.  Stills, Young, and Furay all played the guitar.  Bruce Palmer played the bass.  Dewey Martin played drums.  Stills and Furay usually swapped as lead vocalist and the two harmonized together with Martin.  Neil Young could sing but he wasn't allowed to on their debut album because his voice was too weird.  They released their debut album Buffalo Springfield in 1966 and garnered good reviews with little success.  This would change when theirs and the performances of other bands at the a Go Go proved too loud for Los Angeles locals.  The locals pushed for a strict ten p.m. curfew and loitering laws to stifle the noise and the congested crowds.  Young rock and roll fans saw this as an infringement on their rights and protested against the curfew.  Stills witnessed the demonstration and resulting arrests and quickly wrote a song to chronicle the pent up emotions of the time.  Seeking to capitalize on the memory of the event, Buffalo Springfield quickly recorded the song and released it to local radio stations.  "For What It's Worth", the band's third single, was an immediate hit locally and helped Buffalo Springfield garner a national audience.  Their debut album was re-released, this time with their new hit single leading off and replacing a weaker track ("Baby Don't Scold Me").

Here is the discography surrounding Buffalo Springfield's debut album:

Mustang (1963 single by The Squires)
The Sultan (1963 single by The Squires)
White Cliffs of Dover (1964 single by Sir Raleigh & the Cupons)
While I Wait (1964 single by Sir Raleigh & the Cupons)
Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day (1965 single by Sir Raleigh & the Cupons)
Tell Her Tonight (1965 single by Sir Raleigh & the Cupons)
I Don't Want to Cry (1965 single by Sir Raleigh & the Cupons)
The Mynah Bird Hop (1965 single by The Mynah Birds)
It's My Time (1966 unreleased single by The Mynah Birds)
The Lost Recordings (1966 unreleased recordings)
Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing (1966 single)
Buffalo Springfield
Burned (1966 single)
For What It's Worth (1967 single)
Buffalo Springfield (1967 album re-release)

"Go and Say Goodbye" by Buffalo Springfield


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Au Go-Go Singers - They Call Us Au Go-Go Singers (1964)

"High Flying Bird" by Au Go-Go Singers

Although Joni Mitchell played most of the instruments on her debut album, Stephen Stills played bass on her first single "Night in the City".  Stills dropped out of school to pursue a musical career.  He was active in the Greenwich Village Folk scene playing in bands and as a solo artist.  He was eventually recruited to be a part of Cafe Au Go-Go's house band the Au Go-Go Singers in 1964.  Other members included Kathy King, Jean Gurney, Michael Scott, Rick Geiger, Roy Michaels, Nels Gustafson, Bob Hamerlink, and Richie Furay.  They recorded one album before breaking up in late 1965.  Stills's arrangement for "High Flying Bird" is an early example of the folk rock that Stills would soon help popularize.

Here is the complete discography for Au Go-Go Singers:

They Call Us Au Go-Go Singers
San Francisco Bay Blues (1964 single)

"Gotta Travel On" by Au Go-Go Singers

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Joni Mitchell - Song to a Seagull (1968)

"Night in the City" by Joni Mitchell


The photographer behind the promotional and extra material that went with The Appletree Theatre album is Mark Roth.  He also did photography for Joni Mitchell's 1968 debut album Song to a Seagull.  Since middle school, Joni Mitchell was either painting or painting with words.  She naturally took to writing poetry at the insistence of an encouraging teacher and eventually made her poems into songs due to her love of all kinds of music.  Heavily influenced by the folk movement of the 30s and 40s, Joni busked, nightclubbed and coffee shopped her way from Saskatoon to Michigan to New York to California.  As she traveled, she lived.  She got married, then divorced, gave birth in secret and put her baby up for adoption, wrote songs for her contemporaries, wrote songs for Canadian national television, and was loved wherever she performed.  It was Byrdman David Crosby that whisked Joni away from New York to California to help secure her recording contract with Reprise and produce her debut LP.

Here is the discography surrounding Joni Mitchell's debut album:

Live at 47 Club (1968 live bootleg)
Night in the City (1968 single)
Song to a Seagull
Live at the Philadelphia Folk Festival (1968 live bootleg)

"Cactus Tree" by Joni Mitchell


"Born to Take the Highway" by Joni Mitchell


Joni Mitchell Interview


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The Appletree Theatre - Playback (1968)

"I Wonder if Louise Is Home" by The Appletree Theatre


The producer of Boston's eponymous album was John Boylan.  When John was younger, he and his brother, Terry Boylan, worked together to create a concept album Playback in 1968 as The Appletree Theatre off the Verve Forecast record label.  Together, they created a loose concept album about... well, I dunno, but it was organized like one with a prologue, three acts, and an epilogue.  The album humorously echoed many of the popular sounds and ideas of the time, taking notes from The Beatles, Frank Zappa, and Pink Floyd while implementing (among others) psychedelic rock, sunshine pop, jazz, and classical music into their sound.

Here is the complete discography for The Appletree Theatre:

Hightower Square (1967 single)
Playback

"Who do I Think I Am" by The Appletree Theatre


"Lotus Flower" by The Appletree Theatre


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Boston - Boston (1976)

"Foreplay / Long Time" by Boston


Paul Ahern managed the Simms Brothers Band and did his part in getting the band a record deal and a national tour as opening act with Peter Frampton.  Unfortunately, the Brothers career never took unlike one of Ahern's first gigs as the manager of arena rockers Boston.

Boston starts in Boston in the basement studio of Tom Scholz, the mastermind and lead songwriter, guitarist, bassist, and keyboard player behind the idea.  The only other constant of the band is vocalist Brad Delp that gave the group the larger-than-life flair that could fill out Scholz's anthemic, classic rock.  Members that toured with Boston included Barry Goudreau (second guitar), Sib Hashian and Jim Masdea (drums), and Fran Sheehan (bass).  The group released their debut album Boston in 1976 to mass popularity.  The album topped the charts at #3 and stayed on the charts for 132 weeks.  The album would eventually go Diamond in the US and sell over 20 million units worldwide.

Here is the discography surrounding Boston's debut album:

Demos (1973 demo as Mother's Milk)
We Found It in the Trashcan, Honest! (1976 demo)
More Than a Feeling (1976 single)
Boston
More Than a Feeling (1976 live bootleg)
Rock & Roll Band (1976 promo single)
Long Time (1977 single)
Live in Long Beach (1977 live bootleg)
Peace of Mind (1977 single)

"More Than a Feeling" by Boston


"She's a Looker / Talkin' to the Wall" by Boston


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