Songs from my deep, dark past redux...

In addition to the tunes I posted yesterday, there are at least two other subsets:  the songs from "the closet" - pop fluff that hipsters were supposed to hate (more on that tomorrow) - and songs that came from the underground.  As I tended towards the later, I'll start there first...

One of my favorites in this category starts with Arthur Lee and LOVE...

This cat was creative, cutting edge and alive with possibilities and I used to listen to these albums over and over again even when I didn't quite get it what the music was saying.  Same was true for ALL of Frank Zappa's material - I loved his humor and intellect - and his blending of do wop, experimental 12 tone art songs and jazz/rock blew me away as a teen.

Then came these songs - listed in no order - but all some of my underground favorites:
+ "Over, Under, Sideways, Down" by the Yardbirds - and its pop cousin, "Psychotic Reaction" by the Count V - used to make me flip-out with the weird guitar and words I could never quite understand.  I still get a rush of adrenaline when I hear either song 45 years later.

+ Same goes for "8 Miles High" by the Byrds, "Mr. Soul" by Buffalo Springfield and "I Can See for Miles" by the Who.  There was a creative energy to these songs that took rock and roll in another direction for me:  deeper, more raw than I had known before all while being totally fun, too.  A few years later I got the same feeling from the Grateful Dead - especially "Cosmic Charlie."

+ And then the truly dark sounds of The Doors who played with chaos and sex and the under belly of rock and roll as did Jefferson Airplane (albeit in different ways.)  When Jim Morrison wailed, "When the Music's Over" or "Five to One" he took me into places that frightened me - rage and abandon and loss.  When the Airplane took off with "House at Pooneil Corners" or "Triad" I knew I was in way over my head.

And today's list would be incomplete without mentioning the Vanilla Fudge remake of "You Keep Me Hanging On" and my two favorite Donovan songs from this time - "Season of the Witch" and "Hurdy Gurdy Man" - both of which evoke a way of being just below the radar of the adults in my life at that time.  Each of these songs are still so much fun to hear - and play - that I just had to include as I get ready for tonight's jazz gig. Who knows...? I might STILL be the Season of the Witch.