Elektra Records: People are Strange

Happy Halloween! As with the last several years, I like to find a fitting song to feature on this auspicious holiday of ghosts, goons, and goblins. Since I’m also in the midst of our Fourth Week feature on Elektra Records, the pickings are slim. After much searching for an Elektra recording that fits the mood of All Hallows Eve, I’ve settled upon The Doors’ “People are Strange.”

This 1967 hit has a perfect sound. It starts out with just Robby Krieger’s guitar and Jim Morrison’s vocals. Ray Manzarek adds two keyboard parts. One of these is a tack piano, which is where thumbtacks are applied to a piano’s hammers to give it a clickity (if that’s a word) and old fashioned honky-tonk sound. In the case of this song, it almost has a harpsichord feel. That may be the result of the use of reverb on the piano.  Manzarek also plays accents on his Vox Continental combo organ.

As always, John Densmore is on drums. Since the band didn’t have a bass player and Manzarek typically played a Rhodes’ keyboard bass during their live dates, Douglass Lubahn was brought in as a sideman on bass – a duty he filled quite frequently on The Doors’ recordings. Backing vocals were supplied by Manzarek, Krieger, Densmore, producer Paul Rothchild, and engineer Bruce Botnick. By the way, Krieger’s guitar parts are fantastic and his use of the tremolo bar to raise the pitch of the last chord is a fitting end to this strange tune.

Although actually composed by Morrison and Kreiger, the entire band received songwriting credit. From their second album “Strange Days,” “People are Strange” peaked at #12. This is such a great tune. So tonight, be careful with the “faces [that] come out of the rain.”

Elektra Records: My Best Friend's Girl

Since I missed last night’s post, I promise that I’ll make it up with an extra Elektra release on Sunday. For tonight, we travel back to October 1978 when the second single by The Cars, “My Best Friend’s Girl,” was released by Elektra.

Elektra and Arista had been vying for the attention of The Cars and Elektra was the winner – and the band reaped the benefits, Arista was somewhat New Wave heavy at the time. The Cars would become Elektra’s primary New Wave act.

I was living in the Huntington (WV)/Ashland (KY)/Ironton (OH) market at the time, and while their first single, “Just What I Needed,” was shunned by the stations in the market, “My Best Friend’s Girl” got some airplay. I remember playing it on WAMX when I joined their staff later that year. Although I never heard their first single in the market, I got to know the band from visiting Columbus, Ohio that previous summer where “Just What I Needed” was a staple of the town’s AOR stations.

Unlike the first single that featured the vocals by Benjamin Orr, “My Best Friends Girl” features the voice that became part of the iconic sound of the band – Ric Ocasek. Interestingly enough, the band recorded the song in the key of “E,” but the master tape was sped up and this increased the pitch to the key of “F.”

“My Best Friend’s Girl” only charted at #35 – so it also fits our Thirty Something Thursday category as well.

Elektra Records: Down to Louisiana

Unknown today except to audiophiles, roots music aficionados, and the enlightened; Koerner, Ray, and Glover’s “Blues, Rags, and Hollers” was probably one of the most influential blues albums to be birthed during the folk revival of the 1960s. During the spring of 1963, three students of the University of Minnesota drove all night to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for a date with destiny. The 300 mile jaunt on pre-Interstate highways was even more harrowing due to the foggy conditions that plagued the trio. Later that Sunday morning, ‘Spider” John Koerner, Dave “Snaker” Ray, and Tony “Little Sun” Glover embarked on an all day recording session that produced this monumental.

With only 300 copies pressed on the Audiophile label, the record caught the attention of Jac Holzman at Elektra and it was released by this up-and-coming independent label during the summer of 1963. Some differences exist between the two versions of the album as Koerner, Ray, and Glover overfilled both sides with music, as the album contained 20 songs.

Since the tracks went as close to the label as mechanically possible, many turntables in 1963 couldn’t play the final tracks from each side as the tone arm automatically lifted before the song finished. The album also contained nearly 51 minutes of music, and anything over 42 minutes tended to increase fidelity problems. To fix these issues, Elektra eliminated four of the cuts. In addition, Holzman didn’t like the original stereo mix and the reissue was released monaurally.

I took the photo of this place in Louisiana in 2012.
You might find a mojo hand there.

During The Beatles’ tour of America, the album caught the attention of John Lennon who considered it one of his favorites. Future Elektra recording artist Jim Morrison of The Doors believed it to be one of the best albums released during the period. Although all three musicians are credited as trio, that wasn’t the set-up for the album. Only one track of the reissue had the participation of all three. On today’s cut, “Down to Louisiana,” which was written by Lightnin’ Hopkins and Muddy Waters, Dave Ray sings and plays guitar while accompanied by Tony “Little Sun” Glover on the harmonica.

It needs to be noted that many who learned to play harmonica in the late 1960s and ‘70s studied under the tutelage of Tony Glover. His Oak Publications manual Blues Harp is by far one of the best guides to play harmonica. I picked up my copy in 1974 and still have it as a prized possession. I owe this blues harp master a debt of gratitude.

Elektra Records: Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

The inspiration for using Elektra Records as this month’s feature was inspired by today’s song by They Might Be Giants. In early September I was making my weekly trek to my current position when I heard a National Public Radio’s Morning Edition story on a new crime novel set in old Byzantium. The author and the reporter briefly discussed the various names of what is now Istanbul. The story closed with They Might Be Giants’ rendition of “Istanbul (Not Constantinople).”

Although known as Constantinople (and Byzantium before that), the name Istanbul is not a recent fabrication. Istanbul has been used for centuries as it is a corruption of the Greek phrase “εις την πόλιν (eis ten polin)” meaning “into the city.” The song, however, commemorates Turkey’s 1930 request that global postal authorities only use the name “Istanbul” and cease using “Constantinople.”

Written 23 years after the fact in 1953 by Jimmy Kennedy and Nat Simon, the song was a hit for The Four Lads. The original charted at #10 and was certified gold. Keeping the swing arrangement, They Might Be Giants’ 1990 remake is a little more raucous than the original and its faster tempo makes it a perfect vehicle for They Might Be Giants’ unusual style. The fiddle also adds to the overall flavor of this version.

They Might Be Giants took their name from the title of a 1971 quixotic film starring George C. Scott and Joanne Woodward. The title was a reference to Cervantes’ character Don Quixote’s belief that the windmills he was fighting were actually giants.

Unlike the original, the remake of “Istanbul (Not Constantinople) only charted at #61; however, it is better known as album cut from TMBG’s third LP, “Flood.” Of their 16 albums, “Flood” was the only one to be certified as platinum in the US.

Elektra Records: The Circle Game

Originally focusing on folk music, Elektra Records’ first issue was released in 1951. Started in the previous year by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt’s who were students at Maryland’s St. John’s College, they used an altered version of name of the Greek mythological character Electra.

In 1970, the label became part of Kinney’s holdings which at the time included Warner Brothers and Atlantic Records. In 1971, Kinney changed its name to Warner Communications, Inc. With the purchase of the independent Asylum Records in 1972, Ekektra and Asylum were joined into one division of Warner Communication; however, Asylum appeared to become a subsidiary to the Elektra imprint.

In 2004, Time-Warner merged Elektra into Atlantic and was decommissioned as an active label until resurrected in 2009. Much of the golden years of Elektra were during the years 1965 to 1985 and the bulk of this week’s feature of the label will come from those years.

Our first selection is the title cut from Tom Rush’s 1968 album “The Circle Game.” I bought my copy of this LP in a used record store in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1986,  Although not released as a single from the album as was Rush’s composition “No Regrets,” “The Circle Game” is fairly well known as one of his recordings. Written by Joni Mitchell for Rush, Mitchell did not record the song until her 1970 third album, “Ladies of the Canyon.”

Slade: My Oh My

Known for their raucous songs, Slade’s performance of a ballad was an unlikely proposition, but “My Oh My” was the band’s first bona fide American hit. Although the power ballad charted at #2 in the UK, it only scratched the Top 40 surface in the US. “My Oh My” peaked in the US at #37 and I remember playing this tune on my morning show at WOAY-FM in Oak Hill, WV during 1984.

The tune was composed by lead singer Noddy Holder and multi-instrumentalist Jim Lea. Lea’s piano provides the only instrumentation at the beginning of the cut. Although the single was more successful in the UK, the video recorded to support the tune was only originally released in the US.

Swing Version

By 1985, the band was getting requests from night club acts that wanted to record the song but in a different style. It is rumored that Frank Sinatra suggested that the tune be done swing style. While the band wasn’t keen on recording it themselves, they enlisted a friend Monty Babson and his band to record the demo that could be sent to these artists.

After hearing Babson’s treatment, Noddy Holder decided to record the tune with the backing of Babson’s jazz band. The song was released as a “B” side to the 12-inch single of “Keep Your Hands off my Power Supply.”

Tenor Guitar: Castles Made of Sand

I was trying to find a final song with tenor guitar to finish out this week’s special and I stumbled upon Reggie Witty’s interpretation of Jimi Hendrix’s “Castles Made of Sand.” Not only does Witty sing and play rhythm tenor guitar, but he plays lead tenor and upright bass. The cut was recorded at Austin’s Sotogrande Sound Lab.

Witty plays a Martin O-18T tenor guitar for both the rhythm and the lead parts. I can’t tell what he has in his right hand while he is playing the lead, but it looks like an E-Bow. Unfortunately, I’m not sure, as I believe an E-Bow needs a magnetic pickup to add its violin bow effect to a guitar lead. Having never used one, I really couldn’t say for sure.

As for the tuning, it took me a while to figure it out and I nearly drove my oldest daughter crazy in my attempt. It appears that he has tuned his tenor a fifth lower than standard tuning as F-C-G-D and a step below Chicago tuning (G-D-A-E). I hadn’t heard this particular tuning before, but it really gives the guitar a different sound. Very nice.