Clear Light was an American psychedelic rock band that was formed in Los Angeles, California in 1966. The group released one studio album, Clear Light . It had moderate national success before the group disbanded.
In 1966, The Brain Train formed and was managed by Sunset Strip hipster Bud Mathis. They recorded one single – "Black Roses", [1] written by Wolfe Dios – before changing their name to Clear Light and signing to Elektra Records. Guitarist Bob Seal felt the name should be changed to coincide with the single. Clear Light shared its name with a potent form of LSD, although Seal states the name came from his studies of Eastern philosophy. The Doors' producer Paul A. Rothchild took over management of the band. [2]
The core members of Clear Light were:
The original line-up was featured in the 1967 motion picture The President's Analyst , [4] with Barry McGuire cast as their leader and vocalist. [5]
They soon added Cliff De Young on lead vocals [4] and this is the version of the band seen on their only album cover.[ citation needed ]
However, during the recording process, often described as "brutal", Paul Rothchild was not happy with Robison's guitar skills and pressured the group to remove him.[ citation needed ] He was replaced by keyboard player Ralph Schuckett.
In what has been called the band's finest hour, drunken customers in a Park Avenue club heckled them so brutally that Ralph Schuckett, the usually gentle organist, hurled a few choice words back at them. The band walked off the stage, retired to the Albert Hotel, and woke up in the morning to find that they had become underground heroes. [6]
A notable track from the Clear Light album was "Mr. Blue," a psychedelic version of a folk song written by Tom Paxton and a popular request on underground radio at the time. Lasting over six minutes, the rather sinister, psychedelic song is considered a classic of the genre. [3] Its lyrics, which alternate between spoken word and song, include verses opening with such lines as, "Good morning, Mister Blue, we've got our eye on you," "Step softly, Mister Blue, we know what's best for you," and "Be careful, Mister Blue, this phase you're going through ...." [7]
The album also included a reworked version of "Black Roses", released as a single, and some of guitarist Bob Seal's psychedelic folk-rock songs, namely "With All in Mind" and "They Who Have Nothing." [3] It had some success in England, but was largely ignored in the U.S, reaching number 126 on the Billboard album chart. Paul Rothchild then pressured the other members of the band to fire Bob Seal. [8] Seal was replaced by ex-Fug Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar; Cliff De Young was soon to follow, and after having started work on a second album the group disbanded in 1968. Two tracks from the sessions for the second album surfaced in 2006, "Darkness of Day" and "What a Difference Love Makes"; the latter showed the group moving into more commercial territory due to Kortchmar's influence. [6]
Cliff De Young went on to become an actor in more than 80 films and television series. [9] Dallas Taylor, who had played previously with John Sebastian and alongside Lowell George in the pre-Little Feat group The Factory, later became a member of Crosby, Stills and Nash, Manassas and the Stephen Stills Band. [4] He died on January 18, 2015, of complications from viral pneumonia and liver disease at the age of 66. [10]
Ralph Schuckett went on to play on The Monkees single "Porpoise Song" and The Peanut Butter Conspiracy album For Children of All Ages . [4] [11] He later joined Todd Rundgren's Utopia and became a popular session player for TV soundtracks. [4] Michael Ney also played on "Porpoise Song" and For Children of All Ages, among other session work. [11] Doug Lubahn played bass on several of The Doors' albums, including Strange Days , Waiting for the Sun , and The Soft Parade . In addition to writing the hit "Treat Me Right", performed by Pat Benatar, he was a member of Billy Squier's band. He died on November 20, 2019, at the age of 71. [4]
Robbie Robison ended up in Oregon. He died in 2000.[ citation needed ]
Bob Seal later gigged with Gale Garnet and the Gentle Reign, Transatlantic Railroad, and Redlegs. [12] [13] Danny Kortchmar worked with Carole King for a while, and then with James Taylor for many years. [4]
The Doors is the debut studio album by the American rock band the Doors, released on January 4, 1967, by Elektra Records. It was recorded in August and September 1966 at Sunset Sound Recorders, in Hollywood, California, under the production of Paul A. Rothchild. The album features the extended version of the band's breakthrough single "Light My Fire" and the lengthy closer "The End" with its Oedipal spoken word section. Various publications, including BBC and Rolling Stone, have listed The Doors as one of the greatest debut albums of all time.
Paul Vaughn Butterfield was an American blues harmonica player, singer, and bandleader. After early training as a classical flautist, he developed an interest in blues harmonica. He explored the blues scene in his native Chicago, where he met Muddy Waters and other blues greats, who provided encouragement and opportunities for him to join in jam sessions. He soon began performing with fellow blues enthusiasts Nick Gravenites and Elvin Bishop.
Strange Days is the second studio album by the American rock band the Doors, released on September 25, 1967 by Elektra Records, arriving eight months after their self-titled debut album. After the latter's successful release, the band started experimenting with both new and old material in early 1967 for their second record. Upon release, Strange Days reached number three on the US Billboard 200, and eventually earned a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It contains two Top 30 hit singles, "People Are Strange" and "Love Me Two Times".
The Soft Parade is the fourth studio album by American rock band the Doors, released on July 18, 1969, by Elektra Records. Most of the album was recorded following a grueling tour during which the band was left with little time to compose new material. Record producer Paul A. Rothchild recommended a total departure from the Doors' first three albums: develop a fuller sound by incorporating brass and string arrangements provided by Paul Harris. Lead singer Jim Morrison, who was dealing with personal issues and focusing more on his poetry, was less involved in the songwriting process, allowing guitarist Robby Krieger to increase his own creative output.
The Fugs are an American rock band formed in New York City in late 1964, by the poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver on drums. Soon afterward, they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of The Holy Modal Rounders. Kupferberg named the band from a euphemism for fuck used in Norman Mailer's novel The Naked and the Dead.
James Taylor and the Original Flying Machine is an archival release of 1966 recordings of American singer-songwriter James Taylor's band The Flying Machine, first released in February 1971.
The "Alabama Song"—also known as "Moon of Alabama", "Moon over Alabama", and "Whisky Bar"—is an English version of a song written by Bertolt Brecht and translated from German by his close collaborator Elisabeth Hauptmann in 1925 and set to music by Kurt Weill for the 1927 play Little Mahagonny. It was reused for the 1930 opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and has been recorded by the Doors and David Bowie.
Paul Allen Rothchild was a prominent American record producer of the 1960s and 1970s, widely known for his historic work with the Doors, producing Janis Joplin's final album Pearl and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band's first two albums.
"Love Me Two Times" is a song by the American rock band the Doors. First appearing on their second studio album Strange Days, it was later edited to a 2:37 length and released as the second single from that album. The single reached number 25 on the charts in the United States.
Russell Kunkel is an American drummer who has worked as a session musician with many popular artists, including Bill Withers, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, Jimmy Buffett, Harry Chapin, Rita Coolidge, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Cass Elliot, Dan Fogelberg, Glenn Frey, Art Garfunkel, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Carole King, Lyle Lovett, Reba McEntire, Stevie Nicks, Linda Ronstadt, Bob Seger, Carly Simon, Stephen Stills, James Taylor, Joe Walsh, Steve Winwood, Neil Young, and Warren Zevon. He was the studio and touring drummer for Crosby & Nash in the 1970s and played on all four of their studio albums.
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy was an American, Los Angeles-based, psychedelic pop/rock group from the 1960s. The band is known for lead singer Barbara Robison and for briefly having Spencer Dryden of Jefferson Airplane as a band member.
The Section was a US instrumental rock/jazz fusion band formed in the early 1970s by guitarist Danny Kortchmar, keyboardist Craig Doerge, bassist Leland Sklar, and drummer Russ Kunkel. Other musicians associated with the group include multi-instrumentalist David Lindley and guitarist Waddy Wachtel. They are best known for both studio and stage work in support of some of the best selling singer-songwriters and solo singers of that decade. Their frequent appearances on the records of artists signed to Asylum Records made them the label's de facto house band. Their close association with the singer-songwriter and soft rock genres of the 1970s also led to their alternate moniker of "The Mellow Mafia".
Greatest Hits is a compilation album by American rock band the Doors, released in 1980. The album, along with the film Apocalypse Now, released the previous year, created for the band an entirely new audience of the generation that did not grow up with the Doors. The album went on to become one of the highest-selling compilations of all time, with combined CD and vinyl sales of 5,000,000 in the United States alone.
Rhinoceros was an American rock band established in 1967 through auditions conducted by Elektra Records, rather than organic formation by musicians. The band, while well respected in many circles, did not live up to the record label's expectations. It was also poorly received by fans, producing a slow-selling debut album and two even less successful LPs before breaking up. One reviewer commented, "Despite the fact that the band could not live up to the expectations that were raised by Elektra Records' publicity machine, Rhinoceros' contributions to rock still deserve more credit than subsequent rock histories give it."
John B. Sebastian is the debut album by the American singer-songwriter John Sebastian, previously best known as the co-founder and primary singer-songwriter of the 1960s folk-rock band the Lovin' Spoonful. The album, released in January 1970, includes several songs that would become staples of Sebastian's live performances during the early and mid-1970s. Most notably, the album included "She's a Lady", Sebastian's first solo single, and an alternate version of "I Had a Dream" which was used to open the soundtrack album of the 1970 documentary film Woodstock. John B. Sebastian also featured support performances by David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash several months before that trio agreed to work together as a performing unit.
Douglas Lubahn was an American psychedelic rock and jazz rock bassist who played with internationally famous bands. His work is featured on three albums recorded by The Doors.
Clear Light is the only studio album by the American psychedelic rock band Clear Light, released in September 1967, by Elektra Records. The album was a moderate success.
The Charles River Valley Boys were an American bluegrass group who toured and recorded in the 1960s and were best known for their 1966 album, Beatle Country, presenting bluegrass versions of songs by the Beatles.
Barbara "Sandi" Robison, also known as Sandi Peanut Butter, was an American singer who achieved the most success as the lead vocalist for the psychedelic rock band the Peanut Butter Conspiracy. Robison was one of the earliest female vocalists of a rock band, and she was involved in other acts after the group's disbandment, including the musical Hair.
For Children of All Ages is the third and final album by the American psychedelic rock band the Peanut Butter Conspiracy (PBC), and was released on Challenge Records, in 1969. The album came after the band's contract with Columbia Records expired and bassist Alan Brackett took it upon himself to be the record producer during recording sessions.