Daylight Savings: Time Has Come Today

Day four of our second week feature and this month’s specific tribute is to Daylight Savings Time. Since it is also a Thursday, we have a double honor of providing a song that was released three times for our Thursday’s Repeats and Threepeats feature. The Chambers Brothers may have introduced the world to the concept of psychedelic soul with their recording of “Time Has Come Today.”

As I mentioned, the song was released three times with the initial version from September 1966 being a unique recording of the tune. It is faster and a bit different than the later hit version of the song – the differences are especially noticeable with the guitar parts in the intro and during the short instrumental break. In addition, it had a unique catalog number of 4-43816 while the two later editions of the song were both issued by Columbia as 4-44414. The flip side of the 1966 release was “Dinah.”

When the band recorded their album “Time Has Come Today” in 1967, they laid down a new 11 minute version of the tune; however, radio would never play a song that length, so Columbia edited the single down to 3:05 for release on the day after Christmas. Unimaginably, they faded the song at the first instrumental break. Like the original version from a year earlier, version two flopped.

Columbia believed in this record, so after the dust settled, a second edit of the new version at 4:55 was issued in July 1968. It proved the old adage that the third time was a charm. It was released with the same flip, their impression [get it] of Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready,” and the same catalog number.

The 1968 rendition was their first top 40 hit making it all the way to #11 where it stayed for five weeks. This was a true edit of the long version and it proved to be the key to the song’s success. While The Chambers Brothers had one other Top 40 hit with their follow-up “I Can’t Turn You Loose,” “Time Has Come Today” is considered their magnum opus.

One can’t feature this classic psychedelic soul cut without including the entire 11 minute version of this classic ‘60s cut. Enjoy all of the interesting tidbits of this recording including the heavy use of reverb, the two cowbells doing a tick-tock sound, strange tempo changes, fuzz guitar, electric sitar, screams, laughs, wolf howls, and Martin Denny type bird calls. To top it off, there’s a bit of “The Little Drummer Boy” in the middle of the song. Makes you wonder what they were tripping on the day they recorded this tune.

Daylight Savings: Time In A Bottle

Never intended for release as a single, Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle” became one of the two songs by singer-songwriter to chart at #1 – and it did so for two weeks. Shortly after Croce’s death on September 1973, “Time in a Bottle” was featured over the credits of a made for TV movie. That initial burst of activity prompted disc jockeys to start playing the album cut because of its lyrical content concerning immortality.

The single was released in November and its popularity also reinvigorated the 1972 album “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim.” The initial release of the album only managed to make it to #30 on the Top 200 Album Chart; however, “Time in a Bottle” propelled the LP back on the charts for a five week run at #1.

Although Croce wrote the song in 1970 when he found out he was going to be a father, the combination of Croce’s recent death and the song’s prophetic message resonated with the public.

When I hear “Time in a Bottle” and “I Got A Name,” which was released the day after Croce’s death, I immediately think about hearing the tragic news on the radio. It was the day after the crash and some friends and I were driving home from college for the first time – we were immediately saddened by the report.

Lyrics

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
Till Eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with

If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with

Daylight Savings: Time

Like Steely Dan, The Alan Parsons Project was a band with a fluid line-up that centered around two people. While Donald Fagen and Walter Becker drove Steely Dan, the creative geniuses behind the Alan Parsons Project were its namesake Alan Parsons and his partner in crime Eric Woolfson.

In many cases guest vocalists were heard singing the lead vocals; however, on their 1981 hit “Time,” Woolfson is featured and Parsons sings backup. Released on the 1980 album “Turn of a Friendly Card,” “Time” charted at #15 during the summer of 1981. It reminds me so much of my first year at WCIR in Beckley, WV. I came to the station on February 16, 1981 and originally worked the evening shift from 6 to 11:30 PM.

I will have to say that of all the stations for which I’ve worked, that CIR was probably the most energetic and innovative. It was a good career move for me and I still have roots in Beckley, even though I am back in Kentucky where I got my radio start in 1974. Do I miss radio? Some days, but mostly not; however, I wouldn’t trade those years for anything.

I guess I’m reminiscing – just as the protagonist did in this very beautiful song.

Goodbye my friend, maybe for forever
Goodbye my friend, the stars wait for me
Who knows where we shall meet again, if ever
But time keeps flowing like a river
To the sea, to the sea till it's gone forever
Gone forever, gone forevermore, forevermore, forevermore.

)

Daylight Savings: Time Won't Let Me

In honor of Daylight Savings Time, our second week special for March is dedicated to songs about “time.” Unfortunately, some of the more prominent songs on the subject have already been covered on this blog – so they will be missing this week; however, there are still some classic tunes that I’ve neglected to discuss that will make the rounds this week.

During the height of the British invasion a band from Cleveland broke into the top 5 with“Time Won’t Let Me.” This 1966 hit sold over a million copies and was certified gold by the RIAA. Originally known as The Starfires, the band rebranded as The Outsiders when they signed with Capitol Records in 1965.

“Time Won’t Let Me” was written by band leader Tom King and his brother-in-law Chet Kelley. The sound appeared to be a cross-between the hits coming from Britain and and those from Detroit – a unique sound with its solid rock beat punctuated by a hot horn section. “Time Won’t Let Me” was the first and highest charting of The Outsiders’ four Top 40 hits.

Although Tom King had originally been the lead singer of The Starfires, a throat operation left his range somewhat limited. Therefore, Sonny Geraci was recruited as their lead singer in 1964. Geraci would sing lead on another Top Five hit, Climax’s “Precious and Few,” which was released during the winter of 1971-1972. Climax was originally known as the “☮utsiders featuring Sonny Geraci" until Tom King, who continued The Outsiders in Cleveland, threatened to sue. Geraci acquiesced and Climax was born.

Besides Geraci’s vocals on “Time Won’t Let Me,” the song is also notable for Mert Masden’s bass lines and the late Al Austin’s fantastic lead guitar. Nearly 50 years later, “Time Won’t Let Me” remains a classic song from the sixties.

Harry Manx: Spoonful

Harry Manx calls his unique merging of eastern and western music as “Mysticssippi blues.” Up to a few weeks ago, I had never heard of this Canadian musician, his style, or his unique instrument – a Mohan Veena. That is until his prized instrument was stolen from the baggage claim at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport in February. Manx’s plight went viral on Facebook where I first heard of him and the Mohan Veena. I decided to investigate and loved his unusual music immediately.

Manx had his Mohan Veena for 20 years and he received it from his mentor who invented the instrument. It was built and named for its craftsman Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. The instrument is an altered arch-top guitar that has three playing strings, five drone strings, and 12 sympathetic strings. It looks like a cross between a guitar and sitar.  When it’s played with a slide, it makes for one crazy blues instrument. 

By the way, Manx was reunited with his prized instrument yesterday, and the perpetrator was apprehended by the Chicago Police on February 24. The absence of his instrument for a few weeks no doubt caused him great consternation, but in the process he gained a number of new fans.

It’s fitting that in the following cut he plays some Chicago blues penned by the late Willie Dixon of Chess Records’ fame. While numerous artists including Muddy Waters and Cream have recorded this tune, Manx’s version has to be the most original because of the Mohan Veena.

Harry Manx explains the Mohan Veena

 

The Record's Over - Long Live Porky Chedwick

If there were a holy trinity of Pittsburgh radio, Porky Chedwick would be the father figure, as he was the “Platter Pushing Poppa” and the “Daddio of the Raddio.” The other personages would be Terry Lee and Mad Mike Metro. While none worked for the highest powered AM radio station in the market, all three have been elevated to a clear channel signal beyond this life – and all had more to do with the Pittsburgh sound than those who came before and those who would follow. At the top of the stacks of wax was the “Bossman”: Porky Chedwick.

The earliest memories I have of a radio personality goes back to when I was four years old in the late 1950s. Even at that age, if someone were to ask me to name a disc jockey, the only name out of my mouth would have be that of Porky Chedwick. Like “Mad” Mike Metro who would follow, Porky found the records that he loved and put them on the air. Unconventional in today’s format heavy radio, “Pork the Tork” would blow the dust off of old 78s, scour the discount bins for discarded 45s, flip records to the “B” side, and play, as he said in an interview, “the music he wanted to hear.”

Obviously, the listeners of WHOD and its later incarnation as WAMO liked what he played as well. While WHOD/WAMO catered to an African-American audience, soon white teenagers were listening as well to this suburban station in Homestead, Pennsylvania. He played what was termed as “race records” three years before Allen Freed followed suit in Cleveland. Unlike Freed, Chedwick never took payola and never was as famous or as infamous as Freed; but in Pittsburgh, he was legend.

Not only did Chedwick play music on the air, he was a popular record hop DJ. In fact, he played the same records at local dances and night clubs that he played on the air. Porky continued doing this up until last week. My brother Chuck was quoted in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette blog concerning a lesser known avenue of Chedwick in the late 60s – “Pork in the Underground,” where Porky played obscure rock and psychedelic records. While I never met Porky, my brother actually did several shows with him in the early 60s. I never thought about it much, but I guess I am two degrees of separation from “The Bossman.”

The Pittsburgh music scene lost another legend yesterday with the passing of 96-year old Craig “Porky” Chedwick. The tone arm has been lifted from turntable; long live the “Daddio of the Raddio.” To honor Chedwick, here’s one of his theme songs that I found on YouTube. Unfortunately, I don’t know the artist’s name. If you do, let me know.

Uni Records: Tell That Girl To Shut Up

When MCA resurrected Uni Records for a short run of releases in 1988, the first release on the label was by Transvision Vamp. Fronted by Wendy James, Transvision Vamp was a British alternative rock band. Their first American release was a song originally recorded in 1980 by Holly and the Italians. Holly Beth Vincent penned the tune “Tell that Girl to Shut up.”

While Holly and the Italians’ original failed to chart, “Tell that Girl to Shut up” had a decent run for Transvision Vamp eight years later. While it wasn’t a colossal mainstream hit in the US, it did make it the Hot 100 at peaked at #87. It did much better on the Modern Rock chart where it landed at the #9 spot. Of the band’s nine singles, “Tell that Girl to Shut up” was Transvision Vamp’s most successful tune.