Things start with a hit by Tommy James and the Shondells and then veer into less commercial territory with the folk rock of Judy Collins and her cover of a Sandy Denny tune. Then the great Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention from the strangely named “Unhalfbricking” album with a Dylan cover. Also Joan Baez with another Dylan cover.
All over the map after that including forays into punk/new wave, jazz and even comedy with Monty Python and a great skit about buying argument time. Also look out for early Steve Miller Band and Fleetwood Mac before mega fame.
The Firesign Theatre and Doctor Whiplash are not heard on the clip but you can catch them below:
The site has just started a You Tube Channel. I made a lot of unattended timer recordings in the 1980’s and 1990’s and have started to digitize some of that. Music related as well as some other content will be uploaded.
This is a show that I may have recorded in 1991 or 1992. I don’t know the original source. The segment includes songs and/or interviews with Chris Hillman and The Desert Rose Band, Roger McGuinn, David Crosby and Tom Petty.
The second clip is the same show but in nominal stereo. The stereo signal keeps dropping at intervals with a decrease in volume at the same time.
The above is not an air check but does have some radio content. From an interesting reel to reel tape I found that may have been a pre-edit for an actual radio program. Below is the sheet that I found with the tape. I have omitted most of the Stones and Dylan content. The air checks on this site are exclusive but as this is not an air check some of this material is available elsewhere.
The tape features early Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and others. Also counter culture luminaries such as Paul Krassner, Neal Cassady and Ralph J Gleason can be heard. DJ’s Tom Donahue and Larry Miller from the legendary KSAN are referenced below and can be heard briefly on the clip.
Note – I have more info about the clip courtesy of jmcinnis and chicofishead at the Steve Hoffman Forum :
This is a portion from ‘What Was That or Suddenly Lost Summer 1966-1976’ special broadcast over two days by KSAN San Francisco in 1976. A retrospective look at the decade with music & interviews. This looks to be production notes?
Most casual music fans consider The Beach Boys as an oldies act. The group however was much more than that and there is a whole “other music” by them that only the die hards are familiar with. Some of that music was featured on progressive free form radio stations during the early to mid 1970’s. You can hear it being played on some of the air checks posted to this site.
Below I have posted some examples of that “other” Beach Boys music recorded between 1966 to 1973. Not a best of list as there is so much more on the albums released during this period.
The tracks below are not just fun and sun or an endless summer and are stylistically diverse with contributions from various band members.
FIGHT THE BLIGHT OF RESTRICTED PLAYLISTS AND SUPPORT THE ALTERNATIVES
DEEP CUT 45’S INCLUDING TRACKS BY THE OUTSIDERS, THE JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, MANFRED MANN, THE FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS, THE FLAMIN’ GROOVIES AND MANY MORE !
*I announce the first track on this webcast as the flip side of Time Won’t Let Me by the Outsiders but it was actually the flip side of the second track that I played which was Respectable by the Outsiders.
Radio Aircheck fans please see the latest additions from WBUF FM and WZIR FM below and a new and fascinating CKOC countdown of the top 100 of 1967 and 68 in the Radio Miscellany section.
Here is the Beach Boys 20/20 album from 1969 on prerecorded reel to reel. This provides a good window into the original mix as the first run analogue copies become rare.
I inadvertently left a minute plus blank tape gap between side one and side two dedicated to Rosemary Woods.
Addendum: an astute member of the Pet Sounds mailing list tipped me to the fact that I had cut a few seconds off the tail end of All I Want to Do, the Dennis Wilson tune, which is the fifth track on side one of the album. I have restored the full fade out now just before the middle of the second clip above. A rather infamous fade out as you can hear and you can Google the details.
This is the original duophonic or fake stereo version of The Beach Boys classic Pet Sounds album transferred from a pre-recorded reel to reel tape. This version has been much derided by the purists who prefer the mono version. Brian Wilson intended the original album to come out in mono only.
The reel is not an audio revelation and has suffered from age degradation, moreover, I think that there was a problem with the mastering to begin with. keep in mind that the tape is 48 years old and to my ears it sounds slightly better than the vinyl version of same. The quality does improve a bit after the opening track.
I have put this up as not everyone has heard this version. You will also note in the pictures below that the back cover art was different from the vinyl version.
The second clip features tracks from the reel to reel copies of The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour and The Rolling Stones Flowers. These were recorded at 3.75 inches per second but they sound better than Pet Sounds ( recorded at the better speed of 7.5). The copy of Flowers is actually the most worn out of the three albums but I think it sounds the best. There’s also some variations from the vinyl on the back cover of these two albums as pictured below.
The three groups featured were at or near their peak when these recordings were made ( 1965-67) and the pop-rock landscape was ripe with innovation and creativity. Pet Sounds has been acknowledged as an influence on the Beatles Sgt. Pepper. Magical Mystery Tour was the US follow up album to Sgt. Pepper but the single, Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields ( featured on Magical Mystery Tour) actually preceded the release of Pepper. The influence of God Only Knows from Pet Sounds is apparent on Penny Lane.
Addendum – Should be noted that some of the tracks on the album version of Magical Mystery Tour were also fake stereo including Penny Lane and Baby You’re a Rich Man which are included in the clip above. The stereo processing used for these tracks was different than the one used for Pet Sounds and is hard to discern when listening on headphones ( unlike the Pet Sounds mix ). Strawberry Fields, however the flip side to Penny Lane, was mixed in true stereo for the original album and how that came to be is a whole other story.
