This week we have Bob Dylan's first three top 10 singles, a set of album tracks, an EP track and an unissued track from the Who's pre-Tommy days. And that's just part of what's in the first hour. In hour #2 we go vinyl crazy, with only 3 cuts in the entire hour taken from CD sources.

This week we have a set of tunes from the Jefferson Airplane, most of which have not been played on the show before. Also, in the last segment, side one of the classic "We're Only In It For the Money" by the Mothers of Invention. And between them they take up less than half the show.

Progress is the word of the week, as we progress through the years no less than three times in the course of the show. And just to add a little emphasis to the concept, we feature a set of tracks from progressive rock bands of the early 70s in the last half hour. Somehow, though, we still manage to end up right back where we started: 1966.

We cover a lot of ground this week. There's a set from 1966, a set from 1967, two sets from 1968, a Beatles set, and a couple of tracks that were unreleased until this century (both of which are songs made famous by the Monkees that were recorded by other people before the Monkees even existed). Other goodies this week include a version of the Who's Magic Bus that only appeared on vinyl and the song that was probably the proverbial straw that got David Crosby kicked out of the Byrds.

This week we have a set of tunes from the Rolling Stones taken from the end of the Brian Jones era. Also, we have an entire side of the Grateful Dead's Anthem of the Sun. And for dessert, a short journey through the years with Grand Funk Railroad, including a rare single edit of the opening track from Closer to Home.

This week the entire first segment is set up to sound like the early days of album rock radio (c.1970), with tracks from Sugarloaf, Traffic, Mountain and more. We also have an acoustic set (including a track from the rare first McKendree spring album), a group set (Eric Burdon and the Animals) and of course a couple of sets that progress through the years. And just for the fun of it, we finish the night with a pair of tunes from the irrepressable (although their record company did try, several times) Turtles, featuring Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, who would go on to become known as Flo and Eddie.

The entire first segment features bands that played at Woodstock, two of which also played at Monterey. For the second segment I tried to do the exact opposite, but still ended up with a couple bands that had at least one member that performed at Woodstock. When the third segment started with a Woodstock performer I knew I was fighting a losing battle, and so I gave in and featured two tracks from Woodstock in the last segment. I swear, sometimes this show has a mind of its own.

Once again we have a show with 25 songs from 25 different artists. As for any other possible meanings of "25"...well, I won't confirm anything. Still, the show does end with White Rabbit....

The sets are longer than usual this week; not for any particular reason, that's just the way it worked out. Most of the first segment is from 1967, a decent chunk of the last segment is from 1968, and in between we have a couple progressions through the years, one of which is nearly half an hour long. Add in a set of Cream and a couple of Beatle-related B sides and we've got a show.

This week (after a couple tunes from 1966) we focus on the last half of the psychedelic era, with tracks mostly taken from the years 1968-70. As a result there are a lot of songs this week that haven't been played on the show before, including some tracks from artists that have never been featured on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era. To balance things out the final segment features a short progression through the years followed by a set from 1967.

Most of the artists featured on this week's show are regularly heard on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era. This time around, however, we feature a lot of tracks that have not been played on the show previously. Some of these, such as the performance of the Star-Spangled Banner at Woodstock by Jimi Hendrix, are fairly well known, while others, such as Country Joe and the Fish doing Porpoise Mouth, have seldom been heard anywhere since the sixties. Of course there are plenty of exceptions, such as the Chocolate Watchband's Are You Gonna Be There and the Monkees' Porpoise Song, that have gotten plenty of airplay over the past year, and even a song or two from groups that have never been played on the show (Wishbone Ash, for instance).

Back in the days before syndication, Stuck in the Psychedelic Era was a live local radio show on WEOS-FM, serving the Geneva-Ithaca market. Over the years two artists consistently got more requests than all others combined. Those were Pink Floyd and the Mothers of Invention. This week we pay tribute to those days with sets from both of those bands serving as bookends for the first hour of the show. The second hour serves as a look to the upcoming year, with a combination of familiar tunes and tracks from artists never played on the show before, plus a set of tunes from a particular region (the San Francisco Bay Area), and a couple of progressions through the years.

This week we catch up on a couple weeks worth of requests. The reason it's two weeks is that thanks to the holidays we were actually recording almost two weeks in advance of the actual airdate for the past two shows, but as of this week are back to the usual same-week schedule. Not every song on the show is by request, though. We did have to save some for next week, but we do feature a set from the most requested artist of the bunch to make up for it.

This week we try a little experiment. Each and every set has exactly one requested tune in it. Which tracks are the requests? Well, I guess you'll just have to tune in to find out.

I made a new year's resolution to talk less and play more music, but have to admit I haven't been doing such a great job of it...until this week, that is. Each segment of the first hour features (mostly) uninterrupted music, and the second hour, while broken into shorter sets, still has less talk between sets that any other show this year. As an added bonus, the last set of the show is double length. Now let's see if I can keep it up next week.

This week, in addition to the usual requests, progressions through the years and spotlights on particular years, we throw in some unusual synergy, such as a pair of tunes by female artists describing a relationship in the first person and a pair of songs from bands on opposite coasts, recorded at about the same time, personifying death as a young woman. Also we have a pair of tracks produced by David Hassinger in 1967 for two different bands: one just starting out (the Grateful Dead), and another at their peak of creativity (The Electric Prunes, before Hassinger himself co-opted them). Plus we have a suite from the Mothers of Invention. All this and more in just two hours. What a bargain.

The first hour of this week's show is pretty much business as usual, with a set from 1966 and a couple or three progressions through the years, all featuring a balance of familiar tunes, forgotten favorites and a couple tracks from artists we've never played before. The second hour gets a bit more political, with poetry from people with names like Dylan, Morrison and Mouse and a highly political song from a band not known for their politics (Guess Who). To balance it out we have a non-political song from possibly the most political rock band in history (MC5). We also have some long jams in the second hour, including one from the original incarnation of Renaissance featuring former Yardbirds Keith Relf and Jim McCarty.

It occurred to me that I haven't been playing too many sets consisting of songs by a single artist lately. To rectify that, this week we have no less than three artist sets, including the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Eric Burdon and the Animals (I'll leave it to you to search out the third set). Plus we have the usual stuff like sets of songs from particular years and sets that progress through the years. In fact, we end up with a total of 32 tracks in two hours. That may be a new record.

Starting with the first set this week's show takes several unexpected turns, such as following the Amboy Dukes with the James Bond theme or having a Tim Hardin acoustic track followed by the Mothers of Invention. And I bet nobody saw the Len Barry B side (that starts the second hour) coming! We also have plenty of regular show features such as a set from 1966 and a couple from 1967 (one of them featuring bands from L.A) and a progression through the years1965-68. Plus a set from the Seeds! As always you can get detailed song information later this week at:

www.thehermitrambles.blogspot.com

This week we feature a hodgepodge of tracks from artists from all over the US and UK. Home towns include Boise, ID, Portland, OR, Daytona Beach, FL, New York, NY, Boston, MA, Greenwood, SC, Southend-on-sea, Essex and San Francisco, CA. That's just the first segment. For a complete song by song listing for the whole show go to thehermitrambles.blogspot.com and check out the latest entry (it should be up by May 6th).

As many one-hit wonders have proved, a lot of people have one truly great song inside waiting to get out. To be able to write great songs consistently, however, takes a bit of doing. This week's show has a lot of these quality songwriters. The final half hour, in fact, consists entirely of tunes written by solo songwriters. There are plenty of collaborative efforts sprinkled throughout the show as well.

As you may have guessed, this week's show culminates with the first side of a classic Firesign Theatre album making its Stuck in the Psychedelic Era debut. There are a couple other artists not heard on the show before as well: a New York band called the Insect Trust and a solo track from legendary songwriter John D. Loudermilk. There are also several progressions through the years this week, featuring a handful of familiar tunes from familiar artists and quite a few not-so-familiar tunes from people you have probably heard other stuff from.

Technical note to stations: this week's show runs exactly one minute short, so plan accordingly. A pox upon fuzzy math!

This week we start off with a set from the 60s Grateful Dead (with Pig Pen) and finish each hour with a request. In between we have sets from 67, 68, and, as usual, some progressions through the years.

This week we have sets from 1966, 67 and 69, as well as a three-song set from the Byrds and several progressions though the years. Throw in a handful of miscellaneous tracks and you have a pretty typical edition of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era.

This week our artist set is also an album side, specifically side two of Eric Burdon and the Animals 1968 release The Twain Shall Meet. The side consists of three tracks, each between seven and eight minutes long, including the classic Sky Pilot, the instrumental We Love You Lil and the album's finale, All Are One. Of course there's a lot more to this week's show than just one album side. We start the show with a progression through the years consisting of hit singles (with an added second Jefferson Airplane tune as a bonus). Later in the show we have a set of tunes from 1968. And of course there are several obscure album tracks sprinkled throughout the show as well, including the longest (and most trippy) Guess Who track ever recorded.

30 tracks. 30 artists. Obviously there are a lot of fairly short tracks this week, although the last segment does have some longer ones. Other than that there are only two tracks in the first three segments that are longer than four minutes. While there are no artist sets to speak of (although Jimi Hendrix does appear as a guest guitarist on the last song of the night, making it a sort of mini artist set), we do have sets from 1966, 67, 68 and 1970, as well as a fairly long progression through the years and a suburban San Francisco Bay area set. One final note: the bulk of this week's tracks are album cuts and B sides, with only a handful of familiar tunes thrown in from time to time. Check out the playlist below.

This week we have no less than three artist sets, as well as encore appearances by several tracks heard earlier this year. There are more than a few songs that are making their first appearance on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era, though, including an incredibly sophisticated and powerful solo acoustic piece from then 15-year-old Janis Ian and the only hit record by the Nashville Teens (who were neither teens nor from Nashville), featuring the work of studio guitarist Jimmy Page.

This week variety is the name of the game, as 18 of the 25 tracks heard on this week's show have never been played on Stuck In The Psychedelic Era before. Starting it off we have Bob Dylan with the song Rolling Stone magazine rates the number one song of all time. We also have one of the first extended jams by a rock band ever released on vinyl (from L.A.'s Seeds), a seldom-heard Syd Barrett Pink Floyd track, the first song performed at Woodstock, a set of tunes from Traffic and a track from Japan's first psychedelic heavy metal band.  We finish the show with Janis Joplin's last recording.

Our entire first segment this week comes from the first two Grateful Dead albums, with the bulk of the music coming from the second LP, Anthem Of The Sun. Beyond that, we have a series of "mini" progressions through the years and sets from 1966, 1967, and 1968 (but not necessarily in that order). There are a couple of miscellaneous tracks thrown in as well, including the song that made James Brown a household name.

OK, the short description doesn't really make much sense, but it does mention some of the highlights of this week's show. None of that stuff, however, is in the first segment, which has a progression through the years 1965-67 and sets from 1968 and 1966. The next segment is dominated by a requested track from an obscure Detroit band called the Corporation. The second hour starts with a pair of tunes from 1967 and moves into a set from the Seeds, finishing with a track from the second Flock album, Dinosaur Swamps (our featured album cover of the week). The final half hour is almost entirely from the Electric Ladyland album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, although we did manage to squeeze in a short Kinks song as well.

This week the pendulum swings away from the album tracks of the past two weeks, with a heavier than usual dose of songs that were originally released on 45 RPM vinyl. These include both regional and national hits, and even a few that did better internationally than in the US (such as Hole In My Shoe, which leads off a set of tunes from the first Traffic album). That's not to say that we are totally neglecting album tracks, such as the aforementioned Traffic set and something from the first Spooky Tooth album. Still, don't be surprised if you find yourself recognizing quite a few songs this week.

Wondering which songs got played the most on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era this past year? This week we reveal the official Stuck in the Psychedelic Era 2011 Top 25 list, along with selections from the top four artists of the year. Rankings are based on airplay, listener feedback, requests and (in case of a tie), the order that sounds best. Naturally, we are not going to spoil the suspense by revealing the list here. Next week, however, the entire list (along with notes on the songs and the artists that made them) will be posted at thehermitrambles.blogspot.com

This week's edition of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era is dedicated to Sean Bonniwell, who passed away on Dec. 20th 2011 of lung cancer. I thought of doing a tribute set in the second hour, but then hit upon an idea that I think Bonniwell himself would have appreciated: a Music Machine track in every song set. The result is a show with no less than eleven tracks from Bonniwell's Music Machine, one of the most underrated garage-psych bands of the late 1960s. Bonniwell was one of the first rock musicians to take a holistic approach to his musical presentation. The name of the band itself reflected Bonniwell's idea to segue directly from song to song for an entire set, never pausing long enough to let members of the audience call out requests that Bonniwell had no desire to play. Visually, the Music Machine had a look all their own, with all the members dressing entirely in black (including dying their hair) and wearing one glove on stage, years before Michael Jackson did his first moonwalk. The songs themselves showed a sophistication seldom, if ever, heard among their contemporaries. Elements of Bonniwell's music can be heard in later bands such as the Doors (Ray Manzarek's keyboard style in particular) and Iron Butterfly (especially Doug Ingle's baritone vocal style). In addition to the Music Machine tracks we have nearly two dozen more tunes by the usual variety of artists, including one or two you probably never heard of as well as some old favorites like Jimi Hendrix, the Standells and even the Grateful Dead. See the songlist below for details.

The highlight of this week's show is side two of the Moody Blues' classic LP In Search Of The Lost Chord, on which at least 33 different instruments were used, all played by band members. We also have a set from the Who, some alternate takes and B sides, a few hit singles and plenty of album tracks, including the longest single track from the 1968 LP The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown.

The emphasis this week is on album tracks and B sides, many of which have never been played on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era before. There are, as always, a few exceptions, including a Seeds song that was among the 25 most-played songs last year (as part of an L.A. progression through the years), and the number one single of the year 1965 (as part of an all-British set). For the most part, though, even the tracks that have been played before have only aired once or twice in the past two years (like the opening track of our 3-song Cream set, for instance). Also unusual is the fact that the first set is made up of tunes from 1971, a year that actually falls outside the usual Stuck in the Psychedelic Era range. The show winds up with a track from the recently acquired second Country Joe And The Fish LP (both album and song making their Stuck in the Psychedelic Era debut).

This time around we start and end the first hour with covers of Bob Dylan songs, including an all-1965 set to start the show. We continue with songs written by such diverse talents as Jay Ferguson, Mickey Newbury, Neil Young, Marty Balin, Bob Weir, Ed Cobb, Paul Simon, Alvin Lee, Van Morrison and Jimi Hendrix, among others. Not all great songs come from a single mind, however, and we have several collaborations by such teams as Winwood/Capaldi, Jagger/Richards, Lewis/Carter, Lennon/McCartney and even a couple of well-known songs credited to entire bands (The Doors and Eric Burdon And The Animals). Also included is a track from the rare Leigh Stephens LP, Red Weather, and a set from Something Else By The Kinks, a classic 1967 LP that was largely overlooked by US audiences when it first hit the racks.

Shows like the one this week are hard to describe. This is because we cover a lot of ground without spending too much time in any one place. Probably the best thing to do is just look over the playlist below...........Now that you've had a chance to do that you may have noticed a few patterns, such as the 1967 set that starts things off and the pair of early 70s rock songs from Uriah Heep and Grand Funk Railroad in the last segment. Also of note are tracks from a pair of albums that are considered foundation stones of what came to be called Heavy Metal: Black Sabbath's Paranoid and Blue Cheer's Vincebus Eruptum. These tracks are making their Stuck in the Psychedelic Era debut this week, as are tracks from Sugarloaf, Janis Joplin and others. All in all, this week's show really is all over the place.                                                                                                                                                     

This week we were lucky enough to get three extra copies of the new Big Brother and the Holding Company Live at the Carousel Ballroom CD to give away to lucky listeners. As part of the giveaway we feature two different tracks from the new CD, both of which end up as the opening track in separate 1968 sets. Other highlights this week include a classic jam from the Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac album Then Play On and one of the creepiest (in a horror-show sense) rock songs ever recorded: Bloodrock's D.O.A. We also have sets from 1966 and 1967 as well as a couple progressions through the years and even a sort of country-rock roots set, although none of the groups featured (Doobies , CSN&Y, Country Joe and the Fish) are generally thought of as being country-rock.

Another mixed bag, including a track from the first Uriah Heep album, a suite of tunes from John Mayall's Blues From Laurel Canyon, an early Quicksilver Messenger Service demo (featuring original vocalist Jim Murray) and a group with the audacity to release a single covering a Frank Zappa song less than a year after the Mothers' original came out.

This time around we start off with a set of songs that (with one exception) are making their Stuck in the Psychedelic Era debut (the exception being the sly Seeds tune that kicks off the set). This leads us to our first of two artist sets, featuring the Jimi Hendrix Experience. After a couple of rare tracks from the middle of the decade, the first hour finishes up with a set of singles from 1967. Hour #2 includes a set from the Who (including two tracks from Tommy that have never been played on the show before), a 1966 set, and a final half hour that defies easy analysis.

This week Stuck in the Psychedelic Era goes underground. What's that you say? The show is already about as underground as it gets? Well, true, but this week we ramp it up a notch as we put the emphasis on album tracks and B sides, avoiding (with the exception of one of the songs heard in a Music Machine set) even our own top 25 most-played songs. In fact, of the nearly 30 tracks played on this week's show, only four made the top 40 charts, and one of those (I Want To Take You Higher) started off as a B side. The other three (by Wilson Pickett, Herman's Hermits and Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels) can be considered novelties, at least within the context of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era. Take a look at the playlist below and you'll see just what we are talking about.

This week we start with an artist's set from the Jefferson Airplane and follow it up with a progression through the years that starts with an obscure Jesse Lee Kincaid single and ends up with one of the three studio tracks on the Goodbye Cream album. From there we have a 1965 British rock set, an unlikely pairing of bands that once toured together, a set from Love, and sets from 1967, 1968 and 1966, with a few miscellaneous tracks thrown in here and there for good measure.

This week we have a fairly large number of tracks never played before on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era, including a 1967 set at the beginning of the show and nearly the entire last half hour of the show. On the other hand, the repeat songs include last year's most-played song as well as a handful of other favorites. It's probably just better to check out the playlist below.

Note to stations: due to strange circumstances the first hour runs a minute shorter than usual, and the second hour runs a minute longer. Total time is still 1:58 though.

This week we start with a progression through the years and end with a regression through the years. In between we have a set from the Beach Boys and sets from 1966 and '67 (with a couple of miscellaneous tracks thrown in).

This week we start off with a geographical progression through the years, going from Tyler, Texas in 1965 to London, England 1968, with stops in Los Angeles and Sydney, Australia. We then turn around and immediately do another geographical progression, although this time limiting it to US cities New York, Boston and San Francisco. The second segment centers on a set of tunes from the first Steppenwolf album and finishes out the hour with some tracks from the early 1970s from Flint, Michigan, San Francisco (again) and London (again). With the exception of a Memphis soul classic and a Neil Young Buffalo Springfield tune, this week's third segment was made in England, while the final half hour is mostly from the US West Coast, including a set from the Doors.

Well, obviously these aren't new sides in the sense of being recently recorded. However, full two-thirds of the tracks on this week's show are making their Stuck in the Psychedelic Era debut, including a pair in the last set by artists we have never played anything by before. To balance things somewhat we do have a handfull of songs that are frequently played on the show (Eight Miles High anyone?) Structurally we have sets from 1966,67,68 and 69 and quite a few progressions through the years, including a blues set featuring the likes of Eric Clapton, Jerry Miller, Albert King, Steve Cropper and Pop Staples knockin' out some tasty licks from the latter part of the decade. Enjoy!

We have quite a few long single-year sets this week; in fact the final segments of each hour are actually one long set each; the first from 1968 and the second from 1967. We also have some fairly long sets in the other segments as well, including a set from 1966 and still more tunes from 1968. Our only progressions through the years this week are in the first segment, including a British rock set and a somewhat punkish set covering the years 1964-66. In between we have a set of tunes from the first Chocolate Watchband album, although not all of them feature the entire band (and one is even a studio ringer brought in by the album's producer).

This week we have a record number of artist sets, inlcuding three in a row in the second hour. They cover a bit of ground among them, with two from Britain, one from Boston and the rest from the US west coast. Besides the artist sets we have a mixture of tracks, including a couple making their Stuck in the Psychedelic Era debut (from Donovan and the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band) as well as some returning favorites.

We have tracks from three albums that had album covers so controversial that they were replaced with something the artists never intended. Of course this is radio, so you don't actually get to see any of these covers...unless of course you are PRX subscribers or Facebook users. Musically we have three and 2/3 artist sets, some sets from 1967, and a set of songs with a message. Enjoy!

This week is all about mixes. In the first hour each three-song set is a mixture of two of one and one of the other. For example, our first set includes two British Invasion band and one Texas garage band, all from 1965. We'll leave it to you to figure out which songs in the rest of the sets are the odd ones out. The second hour consists of two long progressions through the years, both of which cover an unusual amount of ground, both stylistically and geographically. The second hour is bookended by familiar favorites from 1966 (Dirty Water) and 1970 (Casey Jones). Oddly enough this is the first airing ever of that particular Grateful Dead classic on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era.

This week the emphasis is on album tracks, although (as always) there are exceptions, such as our opening track, which was a major hit for the Rolling Stones on both sides of the Atlantic. Other than that we have three other single releases, although only one of them (Time Has Come Today) made the US charts. Another, See Emily Play, was a top 10 single in the UK but did not chart in the US, while Buffalo Springfield's debut single, Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing, was a complete flop when initially released in mid-1966. The album tracks this week include a Beatle song that most people don't realize was never released as a single, sets by Jefferson Airplane and the Blues Project, and an entire album side from the Mothers Of Invention. For a complete playlist scroll down.

This week it's all about theme sets. There's a 1967 mini-set to get things started, a progression through time and place, 1966 stereo recordings from both sides of the Atlantic, a psychedelic progression, a 1967 Who set, a Big Brother live set, a set of 1966 garage-rock top 40 hits, a British progression through odd years, and a pair of requests to finish out the show. There are also a couple of lone tracks tossed in at various points to break it up a bit. See the playlist below for details.

This we we start off with a somewhat seasonal set, including four "witch" songs before getting into a playlist that's really all over the place. Check out the playlist below for details.

Just about every week we have at least one set that starts in a particular year and moves forward one year (per track) at a time. This time around EVERY set is a progression through the years. Some of them are fairly long, like our opening set that takes us from 1965-69, while others are standard three song sets. See the playlist below for details.

This week we have an hour of fairly long sets followed by an hour punctuated by some fairly long tracks. Also of note in that second hour is a songwriter's set focusing on Tommy Boyce, both as a solo writer and as a collaborator with his longtime partner Bobby Hart. Also, being Thanksgiving time, I think we can all be thankful that I opted not to play Alice's Restaurant like last year. Finally I'd like to point out that over a third of the tracks on this week's show have never been played on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era before (and there are still literally hundreds of available songs I haven't gotten to yet).

This week it's the first of two shows recorded in June of 2011 to be used as backups when the need arose. The need has indeed arisen, and the first of these is (perhaps unsurprisingly) pretty hard to tell from a regular episode of the show. We start with a "made in the USA" set followed up by a pair of British heavyweights. From there it's a set of softer stuff followed by an acid rock set. The second hour, after a surprise R&B classic from Otis Redding, starts off with a chunky 1966 set followed by a set of Grateful Dead songs (including a pair of mono mixes made from the long unavailable original 1969 mixes of the Aoxomoxoa album). After a 1968 set we add a couple songs that could easily have been added to the show's opening "made in the USA" set before closing with one of the most haunting and overlooked Doors classics ever recorded. Note for stations: there is no promo for this week's show.

At first glance this would seem to be a repeat of last year's Yuletide edition of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era. And that's exactly what it is: a unique mix of cool Yule tunes from 1948 (Spike Jones) to 1983 (George Thorogood), with a lot of interesting stops along the way. For details see SITPE #1151.

After last week's year-end retrospective, the previous week's Yuletide special and a couple of backup episodes, we have the first all-new show of 2013, featuring the usual mix of the familiar and the obscure, and even a few tracks that have never been played on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era before (such as the Beatles' classic Taxman and the Monkees' second-season closing theme For Pete's Sake). See playlist for details.