Chapter 17: That's the Way God Planned It (March - September 1970)

30 March 1970

The cover for Ginger Baker's Air Force self-titled album, released March 1970.

It's always the small things that kept a band from staying together. By the end of Cream's latest tour for Blind Faith, Ginger Baker had stepped down as drummer and brought Steve Winwood with him to form Ginger Baker's Air Force, a jazz-rock fusion supergroup that included members such as Denny Laine, Alan White, Ric Grech, and Harold McNair. Their first album was released at the end of March in 1970, a recording of their live performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 15 January. It was a moderate success, reaching the Top 40 in both America and Great Britain, but its sole single, "Man of Constant Sorrow", only hit #86 in the latter country.

GINGER BAKER: "I was feeling a bit fed up by the end of the 60s. Despite that Steve Winwood gave Cream a more fresh sound when we did Blind Faith, I wanted out. I wanted to expand my horizons and felt that being with Eric and Jack was holding me back. Understandably, they were disappointed with my decision, but they supported me and we still kept in touch." (2009)

With only Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce left in Cream, it would've been the end of the supergroup for real, except that once again, they still had help from friends in high places.

Delaney & Bonnie with Eric Clapton and George Harrison, 1970.

One of Cream's opening acts was Delaney & Bonnie, a rock/soul musical duo formed by the Bramletts and one of George Harrison's signings onto Apple Records. Clapton was particularly chummy with the married couple as he was a fan of their soulful, folksy-sounding blues roots and even spent time with them off-stage and even sat in on their opening sets. It even got to the point he wanted them to be the tour's headliners.

DELANEY BRAMLETT: "After Ginger left Cream, Eric called me up and asked if Delaney & Bonnie would be willing to play with them for their next album. I was willing to play with them, as well as help to produce the album. Heck, Jim Gordon offered to be their new drummer despite being committed to D&B, and Bobby [Whitlock] and Leon [Russell] also volunteered to play. Even Stephen Stills played on a few songs whilst he, [David] Crosby and [Graham] Nash recorded with Neil Young. *chuckles* Small world." (1995)

ERIC CLAPTON: "The recording for Let It Rain began back in November of 1969, and lasted four months. Jack was feeling pretty overwhelmed by the amount of company we had. He was even a bit cross that I got more vocal spots than he did, even though I thought we contributed just as much as the other." (2005)

15 May 1970

Cream - Let It Rain

Released: 15 May 1970

Recorded: November 1969 - March 1970

Producer: Delaney Bramlett

Track listing[1]

Side A

Slunky
Bad Boy
Tickets to Water Falls
Easy Now
To Isengard

Side B
Bottle of Red Wine
The Ministry of Bag
He the Richmond
Don't Know Why
Let It Rain

Cream's fifth album was preceded by the non-album single, a cover of J. J. Cale's "After Midnight" with Bruce's original "Rope Ladder to the Moon" as the B-side. The single topped at #18 in the United States but did not chart in the United Kingdom. Cream's rendition was faster-paced compared to Cale's slower tempo version. Cale was surprised to hear Cream's version become a big radio hit, believing he had fallen into obscurity by this point; he would later admit years later that his music was more famous than he himself.

Let It Rain was released to generally positive reception. Although it paled in comparison to last year's Blind Faith, not helped by the absence of founding member Ginger Baker, it was still a Top 10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic, and even got praise for the mixture of variety in the music, showcasing some of Clapton's musical personality. Although ten tracks were chosen for the final album, there were a lot more tracks featuring Clapton's voice that would end up being released as bonus tracks for future releases, including the "After Midnight" single.

June 19, 1970

The Monkees - Changes

Released: June 19, 1970

Recorded: October 28, 1966 - November 11, 1969, February 5 - April 2, 1970

Producer: The Monkees, Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart, Bill Chadwick, Jeff Barry

Track listing[2]

Side A

Oh My My
Propinquity (I've Just Begun to Care)
You're So Good to Me
It's Got to Be Love
How Insensitive
Acapulco Sun
Time and Time Again

Side B
Angel Band
Tell Me Love
Do You Feel It Too?
Some of Shelly's Blues
All Alone in the Dark
I Never Thought it Peculiar
Little Red Rider

The Monkees' eighth album, Changes, was their last with Michael Nesmith for seventeen years. The reason for his departure from the group was because he wanted to continue recording with his own country-rock group, Michael Nesmith & The First National Band. The band's first album, Magnetic South, was due out in June, the same month that the Monkees' Changes would be released; it even included new versions of four songs Nesmith and written and sung for the Monkees. The album charted at #143 on Billboard's Top 200, though the "Joanne"/"One Rose" single reached #21.

MICKY DOLENZ: "It was just sad, looking back. Mike was no longer interested in being a Monkee, Pete was essentially AWOL, and Davy and I were just tired. Monkeemania had long since worn off. Changes and Mike's solo album Magnetic South proved to be the death knell for the Monkees." (2006)

Changes peaked at #152, the Monkees lowest chart position for any of their albums, and critical reception was of indifference at best. But despite that, the Monkees still had to put out one more album in order to fulfill their contract, and so Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones went through the archives to compile an album with previously unreleased recordings ranging from their self-titled album in 1966 all the way up to unused recordings from Changes. The only new songs recorded for it were "Do It in the Name of Love" and "Lady Jane", recorded only by Dolenz and Jones that September.

The resulting album, Instant Replay, served as a showcase as to how far the Monkees' music had gone in a short period, and it was also a gentle goodbye to their fans. When it finally came out in April 1971, the Monkees were no more.

September 4, 1970

Jimi Hendrix - The Cry of Love

Released: September 4, 1970

Recorded: March 1968 - August 1970

Producer: Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Kramer

Track listing[3]

Side A

Dolly Dagger
Night Bird Flying
Room Full of Mirrors
Drifter's Escape
Belly Button Window
Freedom

Side B
Earth Blues
Ezy Ryder
Astro Man
Straight Ahead
In From the Storm

Ever since his last release, Electric Ladyland, Jimi Hendrix had been working on and off again on his fourth album, a comeback he had planned to call First Rays of the New Rising Sun.[4] The initial sessions for the album had stretched as far back as March 1968, during the sessions for Electric Ladyland, all the way up to August 1970 with newer songs such as "Dolly Dagger", "Freedom", "Ezy Ryder", and "Night Bird Flying". Hendrix had initially planned for the album to be a double, but producer Eddie Kramer suggested that it would be better to release a single album instead, and work on some of the cut tracks for a later release. Surprisingly, Hendrix heeded the producer's advice.

The Cry of Love was released September 4, 1970, almost two years after Hendrix's last album. It reached #3 in the United States but was kept out of the #1 spot in the United Kingdom by the Beatles' Everest. Critics and fans saw this release as a return to form for Hendrix following what was perceived at the time as a two-year hibernation. How the album managed to reach these heights despite the artist being absent on the music scene for a long time was not without a frightening experience...

18 September 1970

Jimi Hendrix, the day before his near-death experience, 17 September 1970.

JIMI HENDRIX: "I was in London with Monkia [Dannemann], and I'll admit the details of what we did around London were a bit of a blur. Lots drinking and talking to friends, and all that. But when she and I got home very early in the morning, I took on some sleeping pills and was soon asleep in bed. Next thing I knew, it was a few hours later, Monika had left to buy cigarettes, and I found myself vomiting onto the floor. That was when Monika realized something was wrong with me and quickly called the hospital. Doctors said that I had almost choked on my own vomit, and that if I hadn't woken up, I'd have choked to death." (2005)

Hendrix was soon discharged from St. Mary Abotts hospital a few days after his near-death. September 18, 1970 would be remembered as a day of "what could've been", and the 22nd would be remembered as a day of relief when Hendrix re-emerged from hospital and returned to the United States, with girlfriend Monkia Dannemann around his arm.

Following this scare, Hendrix would get back into the music scene for his next project, Black Gold, which was released at the end of 1971, being hailed as his greatest work. He would soon marry his girlfriend Monkia in mid-1972, and together they had three children before breaking up in 1996. Hendrix would continue releasing new music during the 1970s and 1980s, and every once in a while, he would turn up at a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame or Grammy ceremony. He eventually retired from the music scene at the end of the 2000s, and died from lung cancer on July 20, 2011. Jimi Hendrix was aged 68.

Footnotes

1. Tracks are sourced from Eric Clapton's 1970 self-titled album and Jack Bruce's Songs for a Tailor.
2. Micky and Davy's tracks are sourced from the 1994 reissue of Changes, and Michael's tracks are sourced from Missing Links Vol. 3 excluding "Some of Shelly's Blues", sourced from Vol. 2.
3. Tracks are sourced from Rainbow Bridge and The Cry of Love, excluding "Drifter's Escape" from South Saturn Delta, "Earth Blues" from disc four of The Jimi Hendrix Experience box set, and "In From the Storm" from West Coast Seattle Boy.
4. This was indeed the title Jimi Hendrix had planned for his follow-up to Electric Ladyland.

Author's Comments

This chapter's a bit shorter than some of the previous ones, but I don't think that's really a bad thing now, is it? The Monkees have split up much like OTL, except Michael stayed a bit longer; things will carry on much as they did, though we will come across one of the Monkees at some point again in the future.

But perhaps one of the biggest deviations from this timeline is the survival of Jimi Hendrix. Admittedly, there wasn't really a lot for me to work with as I'm not 100% sure what he would have done had he survived, but I did write up a brief summary as to what he did following his near death, including the release of Black Gold. I like how his story turned out, but I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of it. What would y'all do differently? I'd like to hear suggestions!

Speaking of which, what are the surviving Beach Boys up to? Next chapter will reveal all!

Chapter 13: Wooden Ships (February - October 1969)

20 February - 28 June 1969

The cover for Cream's Wheels of Fire album, released August 1968.

The supergroup Cream's third album, Wheels of Fire, was the first album released on the Apple Records label on 9 August 1968. It topped the charts in America despite being a double album; one record of live performances, and the other studio tracks. That October, Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker had recorded new material for a fourth album, most notably "Badge", a collaboration between Clapton and George Harrison (credited as "L'Angelo Misterioso").

JACK BRUCE: "At that point, we were kind of getting fed up with one another, what with the ego and all. My hearing was going bad, Ginger and I were at each others' throats, Eric was more interested in playing with Bob Dylan's backing group. But then there was this sort of battle of the bands going on with the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Monkees, and despite the frustration, we kind of wanted in. That was where Steve Winwood came in." (2007)

Steve Winwood was a keyboardist known for being a member of the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic. Clapton and Bruce had known him back in 1966 when they were part of a group called the Powerhouse, but only recorded three songs together, and Clapton and Bruce later formed Cream with Baker. Winwood agreed to provide the keyboards for Cream's next album, and by the end of February, they were back in the studio with producer Jimmy Miller to record the next Cream album.

28 July 1969

Cream - Blind Faith

Released: 28 July 1969

Recorded: October 1968 ("Badge"), 20 February - 28 June 1969

Producer: Felix Pappalardi ("Badge"), Jimmy Miller

Track listing[1]

Side A

Had to Cry Today
Theme for an Imaginary Western
Can't Find My Way Home
Weird of Hermiston
Presence of the Lord

Side B

Never Tell Your Mother She's Out of Tune
Badge
The Clearout
Do What You Like

"Badge" was released as a single four months ahead of Blind Faith, backed with a cover of Buddy Holly's "Well... All Right" as the B-side, becoming a Top 20 hit in both the United States and the United Kingdom. It was the only track from the October 1968 sessions that the group deemed salvageable, and overdubs were added to fit amongst the February to June 1969 recordings.

When Blind Faith was released, there was controversy surrounding the cover depicting a topless pubescent girl, created by Bob Seidemann, a photographer and personal friend of Clapton known for his photos of Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead. An alternative cover in the United States depicted the band on the front.

Controversy aside, the album was still a commercial success, being Cream's first album to reach #1 in the United Kingdom, as well as their second to top the charts in America, the first being Wheels of Fire. Blind Faith, named for a comment made by Eric Clapton about describing everyone's self-belief that Cream would still be around, no matter the circumstances, is often said to have included some of the best music Cream have ever put out, being ranked by Rolling Stone as the 140th greatest album of all time.

It seemed as if for now, Cream was stable once again.

12 - 31 March 1969

The wedding of Paul and Linda McCartney, 12 March 1969.

Just a fortnight after the filming on Apple Films' take on Alice in Wonderland had wrapped up, Paul McCartney had married his new girlfriend Linda Eastman. Although the event had initially been planned to be a secret, much like John Lennon's first marriage to Cynthia Powell in 1962, onlookers and reporters soon caught wind of the newly-wed couple. Many girls cried because Paul had been the last bachelor Beatle. None of his bandmates attended the ceremony, but Mal Evans, Peter Brown and McCartney's brother Michael acted as witnesses. Four days after the wedding, Mr. and Mrs. Paul McCartney went off on their honeymoon to New York to spend time with Linda's family.

At the same time, John and Yoko had flown to Paris, France. Their initial wedding date was to be 14 March on a cross-channel ferry in Southampton, but due to Ono not being of English ancestry, that was not possible. The couple wanted to try again in Paris, but Peter Brown instead advised for them to marry in Gibraltar, at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. "We chose Gibraltar because it is quiet, British and friendly," John would later recall. "We tried everywhere else first."

John and Yoko's bed-in for peace in Amsterdam, 25-31 March 1969.

John and Yoko's marriage received a lot of press coverage, and so they decided to use this publicity to promote world peace. They stayed at room 902 at the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam in the Netherlands for a week in bed. The press were invited into the room for twelve hours a day between nine in the morning and nine in the evening; rather than seeing them making love in public following a public image of Lennon and Ono naked, they simply sat in their bed talking about peace. For all the publicity it got, much of it hostile, their message was distributed across the world.

But what about George and Ringo? Whilst the latter was preparing for his role in The Magic Christian, the former along with wife Pattie had been busted on Paul's wedding day by Sgt. Norman Pilcher of the Drugs Squad. Pilcher had infamously arrested Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger, Brian Jones and Keith Richards, as well as Scottish singer/songwriter/guitarist Donovan, John Lennon himself, and nearly managed to capture Eric Clapton.

GEORGE HARRISON: "They chose Paul's wedding day to come and do a raid on me, and to this day, I'm still having difficulty with my visa to America because of this fella [Norman Pilcher]." (Anthology, 1995)

George and Pattie Harrison being brought into Esher and Walton Magistrates' Court following their drug bust, 18 March 1969.

The Harrisons appeared at Esher and Walton Magistrates' Court on the 18th on the charge of cannabis possession. The trial took place on the 31st when they pleased guilty to the charge, but it was likely to have been planted in the house by Pilcher and his squad. They were fined £250 plus 10 guineas each and put on probation for a year.

14 - 25 April 1969
The Beatles were now back in the studio. Well, John and Paul were, at least. George was looking for a new house to live in, and Ringo was on set for The Magic Christian. Inspired by the events of his wedding and honeymoon, Lennon wanted to get a song he dubbed "The Ballad of John and Yoko" on record as quickly as possible. "It'll be an instant single," he explained to Paul at the latter's home. "Write something up for breakfast, record it for lunch, and then release it to the public for dinner."

"Erm, well, it's a nice idea and all that," Paul admitted, "but shouldn't we plan it out first?"

"To hell with that," argued John. "Too much planning would ruin it."

"But George and Ringo aren't there," Paul pointed out.

"Well, you can do the drums just as well as Ringo can," John countered. "C'mon, this'll be great, Macca."

The cover for the Beatles' April 1969 single, "The Ballad of John and Yoko".

Eventually, Paul agreed to it, despite his concerns about the references to Jesus Christ and his crucifixion in the lyrics. With Geoff Emerick as their engineer, "The Ballad of John and Yoko" was recorded and mixed within seven hours.

JOHN LENNON: "Just as we'd finished up 'Ballad', Paul offered up the B-side, 'Two of Us', about his own relationship with Linda. I didn't have anything else on hand, so re quickly recorded and mixed it as well." (1981)

PAUL McCARTNEY: "I've a soft spot for both 'Ballad' and 'Two of Us'. It was almost like the peak of mine and John's friendship. As much as it was a love song for Linda, it was also a song of friendship for John. He shared his personal experiences with Yoko, and I shared my own with both him and Linda." (2000)

Eleven days after they were recorded "The Ballad of John and Yoko" and "Two of Us" were released as a single, being one of the fastest-released songs in rock music history. It marked their 22nd #1 single when it reached the top in the United Kingdom, but it only reached #8 in the United States, possibly due to the religious references. American radios preferred the B-side instead.

When asked for their opinions about being left off the single, Ringo admitted to feeling "slightly hurt about not being asked to play drums" (1982), George was indifferent. "It was none of my business," he said. "If they had been 'The Ballad of John, George and Yoko' and 'Three of Us', then I would have been on both sides." (1979)

For the next two months, the Beatles were either spending time with their families or helping to expand Apple Corporation alongside Brian Epstein, Derek Taylor, Neil Aspinall and Peter Brown. Their next release would come as a complete shock to many...

7 July 1969

The Beatles - Back in Your Safely Beds

Released: 7 July 1969

Recorded: 30 May - 21 June, 14 August - 16 September, 1 and 4 November 1968, 3, 24, and 26 January, 1 June 1969

Producer: George Martin, Chris Thomas, The Beatles, Yoko Ono

Track listing[2]

Side A

Give Peace a Chance
Los Paranoias
Wild Honey Pie
What's the New Mary Jane?
Suicide

Side B

Wonderwall
Song for John [w/ Yoko Ono]
Hot as Sun
Revolution 9
Taking a Trip to Carolina

The sessions that ultimately compiled Back in Your Safely Beds ranged all the way from the initial sessions of Beatles '68 and Alice in Wonderland all the way to John and Yoko's performance of "Give Peace a Chance" at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Canada on 1 June - an entire year. The album's most noteworthy track, outside of "Give Peace a Chance", was "Revolution 9", which began as an acoustic rendition of the Beatles '68 track "Revolution" before the coda delved into numerous overdubbed vocals, speech, sound effects and short tape loops. According to Lennon, the goal of "Revolution 9" was to paint a picture of a revolution using sound.

As for the remaining tracks, "Los Paranoias", "Wild Honey Pie", and "What's the New Mary Jane?" were outtakes from the sessions for both Beatles '68 and Alice in Wonderland; "Song for John" (featuring Yoko on vocals) and Harrison's "Wonderwall" were both recorded in early November; "Suicide" and "Hot as Sun" were jams both written by Paul McCartney back in the late 1950s, and "Taking a Trip to Carolina" was a short snippet written by Ringo, all three being recorded in January.

The Beatles, 1969.

Back in Your Safely Beds came off as a shock to both critics and fans alike. It was the first Beatles album to not reach #1 on either side of the Atlantic, stalling at #2 in the United Kingdom and topping out at #14 in the United States.[3] Reception towards the album ranged from mixed to negative, with the first lines of the Rolling Stone review being, "What is this shit?"[4] The motives behind Back in Your Safely Beds have been subject to wild speculation since its release, with some claiming that John Lennon wanted to kill the Beatles' almost-spotless legacy, so he relied on older, more experimental recordings to compile an album that made no sense whatsoever. Some defenders, however, believed there was indeed a concept to Back in Your Safely Beds that had some legs to stand on.

RINGO STARR: "When Brian [Epstein] first heard Back in Your Safely Beds, he called us into a meeting. He was absolutely furious, especially with John." (1992)

JOHN LENNON: "Eppy didn't really like the sound I cobbled together for Safely Beds, and he even chastised me for almost causing permanent damage to the Beatles' good name with what he called 'an antithesis to what the Beatles were made of' - his word, not mine. Feeling as if I was driving the band off the deep end, he put Paul in charge of the band, and said that we had to put out an album to bring back goodwill with the public... or else." (1976 Rolling Stone interview)

In the past, Epstein was lenient when any of the boys screwed up, but this time, he wasn't letting any of them off easy. He had booked studio time starting on 21 July and ending on 10 August, and the last thing he said to the Beatles at the meeting was, "Don't let that avant-garde bollocks be the last thing people will remember you for!"

October 3, 1969

The Monkees - Listen to the Band

Released: October 3, 1969

Recorded: May 10, 1968 - August 14, 1969

Producer: The Monkees, Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart, Bill Chadwick

Track listing[5]

Side A

Little Girl
Good Clean Fun
If I Knew
St. Matthew
Smile
Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye
Hollywood

Side B

Look Down
Listen to the Band
French Song
The Crippled Lion
Pillow Time
Oklahoma Backroom Dancer
The Good Earth

The Monkees' Listen to the Band was the group's seventh album overall, as well as their first album recorded following the departure of Peter Tork. The album contained leftover tracks from The Monkees Present sessions, and the contributions were roughly split amongst the trio; three songs from Micky, five from Davy, and six from Michael. Listen to the Band was the final album by the group to reach Billboard's Top 100, barely managing to reach the bottom spot. Despite the tour with the backing of Sam and the Good-Timers with many performances lasting longer than two hours, it was still not enough to make the Monkees a commercial force once again, especially with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Yardbirds and Cream overshadowing the group's best efforts.

MICKY DOLENZ: "It seemed strange at the time; I mean, the Zombies had a bit of a resurgence in popularity, but why not the Monkees? The tour seemed like a waste of time in retrospect; it was as if we were kicking a dead horse... or a dead monkey, I suppose. It looked as though the phenomenon had peaked." (1994)

Footnotes

1. Tracks are sourced either from Jack Bruce's Songs for a Tailor or Blind Faith's sole self-titled album. "Badge" is sourced from Cream's Goodbye.
2. "Give Peace a Chance" is taken from John Lennon's Power to the People: The Hits. "Los Paranoias" and "Wild Honey Pie" are both from the 2018 remaster of The White Album, the former being the four minute version as opposed to being part of a medley with "Step Inside Love". "What's the New Mary Jane" is from Anthology 3 with the closing dialogue removed and the Spanish guitar intro from "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" included. "Suicide" and "Hot as Sun" are both taken from Paul McCartney's McCartney, the latter fading out before the "Glasses" portion comes in. "Wonderwall" is "Dream Scene" re-titled from George Harrison's Wonderwall Music. "Song for John" is from Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions. "Revolution 9" is from soniclovenoize's A Doll's House reconstruction that he made as an April Fool's joke. "Taking a Trip to Carolina" is from disc six of The Lost Album bootleg.
3. In OTL, "Give Peace a Chance" had the exact same chart positions when it came out.
4. These were the same words that opened Greil Marcus' review of Bob Dylan's Self Portrait.
5. Tracks are sourced from the 1994 reissue of The Monkees Present and the 2011 reissue of Instant Replay.

Author's Comments

First off, apologies to those who were offended by the cover for Blind Faith; I don't mean to cause any offense to anyone who may be reading this. Controversies in the world of rock music are inevitable, whether we like it or not.

Second, I feel like the Monkees' part of this chapter felt like an afterthought. Though then again, a double album version of The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees wouldn't have had much effect on their declining popularity either way. They would inevitably fall apart by the start of the 1970s, as they will in this story, though they last a tad longer than OTL.

And lastly, I've changed the tags so each will direct you to a specific story arc. Strawberry Peppers refers to the alternate universe as a whole, but for each of the smaller stories, they're as follows:

• The March of the Queen Beatle: This is the main story of the timeline. The bands being focused on are the Beatles and Queen; the latter will come in when we get to the 1970s.
• Jumpin' Jack's Knife: The Rolling Stones' portion of the story, featuring a certain Major Tom we'll meet up with in the next chapter.
• Villains and Heroes: Featuring The Beach Boys as the main players. Admittedly, their story is very short, and it serves as a sort of subplot to The March of the Queen Beatle.
• Interstellar Overdrive: Pink Floyd's story in this universe. Their story branches off from The March of the Queen Beatle.
• Happy Jacks: The Who's story which branches off from Jumpin' Jack's Knife.
• Through the Looking Glass: The Monkees' piece in the universe, though it does draw rough parallels to what happened to them in OTL, Tork's departure and all.
• Dazed with Confusion: The Yardbirds' story which draws parallels to Led Zeppelin's story in OTL.
• Seasoned for the Time: The Zombies' story in which they continue into the 1970s, taking the place of the band Argent and Colin Blunstone's initial solo career.
• Apple Badge: The newest collection that features Eric Clapton and his time with Cream, continuing beyond 1968, as we've recently just seen.

So far, that's nine stories taking place at the same time during Phase One. There is a tenth story being planned at the moment, but I'll reveal who it is in due time.

Chapter 11: Happy Together (September 1968 - February 1969)

25 September 1968

The lineup for the New Yardbirds, 1968. Not pictured: Keith Relf and Jim McCarty.

Recording was about to commence for the Yardbirds' sixth album. Fittingly enough, the six members - Jimmy Page, Keith Relf, Jim McCarty, and newbies Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John "Bonzo" Bonham - went into the studio to record the new material that Page and the newbies had performed during the Scandinavian tour, which they were known as the New Yardbirds.

JIM McCARTY: "Alongside the new material Jimmy, Rob and the Johns wrote up, Keith and I came out with a couple of tracks we couldn't include on Dazed and Confused." (1992)

The leftover tracks by McCarty and Relf were the psychedelic "Avron Knows" and the mostly instrumental "Spanish Blood" in which McCarty provided spoken verses. They were re-worked to fit the newer songs such as "I Can't Quit You Baby" and "How Many More Times".

Recording for the album took a combined total of 36 hours spanning over a few weeks, and that included the final mixing due to the very low cost of £1,782 (the equivalent to $2,317, $16,719 in today's money) paid for by Page and manager Peter Grant. Much of the album had been recorded live with the overdubs added in later.

Jimmy Page with Jeff Beck during the latter's time as a Yardbird, 1966.

JIMMY PAGE: "Coming up with an album title wasn't easy. We'd just signed up with Atlantic Records after our contract with Epic had ended, but our first album for Atlantic had no name. I then came across a picture of the Hindenburg disaster and recalled a saying from Keith Moon a few years back." (2009)

Back in 1966, Jimmy Page had recorded with Who members John Entwistle and Keith Moon as well as pianist Nicky Hopkins and former Yardbirds member Jeff Beck for an instrumental that became "Beck's Bolero", later to end up on Beck's debut solo album Truth. The outcome was so satisfying that there was even the possibility of forming a full time group and an album to go along with it.

KEITH MOON: "Yeah, it'll go down like a lead zeppelin." (to Jimmy Page, 1966)

Remembering this quote, Page opted for the title Going Down Like a Lead Zeppelin for the next album, another landmark in the Yardbirds' history.

10 January 1969

The Yardbirds - Going Down Like a Lead Zeppelin

Released: 10 January 1969

Recorded: September - October 1968

Producer: Jimmy Page

Track listing[1]

Side A

Good Times Bad Times/Communication Breakdown
I Can't Quit You Baby
Heartbreaker
Avron Knows
Baby Come On Home

Side B

Spanish Blood
You Shook Me
Moby Dick
How Many More Times

The Yardbirds' sixth album, Going Down Like a Lead Zeppelin, was advertised as being "the only way to fly" in selected music papers. When it first came out, it had received poor reviews from critics; Rolling Stone unfavorably compared it to the works of the Jeff Beck Group, formed at the start of 1967 following Beck's departure. Page's production and writing skills were also criticized, as well as the minimal involvement from founding members Relf and McCarty.

But was it all that bad? In a review from Melody Maker, Chris Welch wrote that "Jimmy Page triumphs - [Going Down Like a] Lead Zeppelin is a gas!" Felix Dennis of Oz and Robert Christgau of The Village Voice were also fairly positive.

For all the mixed reception the album got from critics, it was still a commercial success, reaching #7 in the United States and #6 in the United Kingdom, marking the first time the Yardbirds had reached the Top 10 on either side of the Atlantic. Going Down Like a Lead Zeppelin would become influential towards heavy metal music, not dissimilar to the Beatles' self-titled album from two months previous.

November 1968
Although it looked as though the Yardbirds were destined to continue, the Monkees were slowly beginning to disintegrate.

Theatrical poster for Head, released November 1968.

MICKY DOLENZ: "Although The Birds, The Bees [& The Monkees] had done fairly well by our standards, band morality was sort of low. Peter seemed to get the worst of it. All of us were going different directions by that point." (1997)

That February, The Monkees television show had been cancelled. This seemed to be a blessing for Micky, Peter, Michael and Davy since it meant that they could spend more time in the studio. However, they performed less as a band and more as a series of parallel solo careers, each member having his own set of backing session musicians. Around that time, they had featured in Head, a meandering, nonsensical, and full-blown psychedelic full-length movie without a coherent plot. Co-written by future star Jack Nicholson, the intent of the movie was to destroy the mythos of the Monkees, potentially ending their career for good.

DAVY JONES: "[Bob] Rafelson and [Bert] Schneider seemed to have lost it when they made Head. When it flopped against a budget that was less than a million, they severed all ties with us altogether. Not that we were bothered." (1975)

As time went by, Head would develop a cult following for its style and humor, and Michael Nesmith would even admit that it was a crowning achievement for the Monkees.

Peter Tork, 1968.

What wasn't a crowning achievement, however, would be the television special 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee, to air on the National Broadcasting Company in April the following year. Ironically enough, the Monkees played second-string roles compared to the guest stars. It was on the first day of filming that Peter Tork had decided that he was finished with the Monkees.

PETER TORK: "I was just unhappy at that point. I wasn't feeling creatively inspired. I felt like I was barely part of the group. I'd had enough. If they wanted to carry on with that ridiculous battle of the bands as the press was calling it, I wished them the best." (1987)

MICHAEL NESMITH: "By the time Peter had left us, we were planning for another double album like The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees, with each member occupying his own side. As it turned out, however, that album had sort of dried up my well of material, and I wouldn't have much contributions until we got to Listen to the Band[2]. Micky and Davy had enough to fill their own sides, but Peter barely had any material of his own. It was very much two Monkees per side in the end, with Micky and Davy as the main acts and Peter and I being the intermission acts of sorts." (2009)

February 14, 1969

The Monkees - The Monkees Present Micky, Peter, Michael & Davy

Released: February 14, 1969

Recorded: December 9, 1967 - January 10, 1969

Producer: The Monkees, Gerry Goffin, Eddie Hoh, Felton Jarvis, Keith Allison, Bill Chadwick, Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart, Neil Sedaka, Carole Bayer Sager, Bones Howe

Track listing[3]

Side A: Micky and Peter

Porpoise Song
Can You Dig It?
As We Go Along
Just a Game
Shorty Blackwell
Mommy and Daddy
Seeger's Theme
(I Prithee) Do Not Ask for Love

Side B: Michael and Davy

Circle Sky

Don't Wait for Me
While I Cry
Daddy's Song
Don't Listen to Linda
Me Without You
You and I
The Girl I Left Behind Me
A Man Without a Dream

The sessions that ultimately produced The Monkees Present Micky, Peter, Michael & Davy had stretched far back to December 1967, during the sessions for The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees, all the way to January 1969, two months after Tork's departure. The album consisted of a whopping seventeen songs with only two contributions from Tork, three from Nesmith, and six each from Dolenz and Jones. It only reached #32 in the United States and failed to chart in the United Kingdom.

A non-album single, "Tear Drop City", had origins tracing back to October 1966 during the sessions of the band's second album, More of the Monkees. Its B-side, "A Man Without a Dream", actually came from the album. "Tear Drop City" only reached #56 in America whilst doing a somewhat better #44 in the United Kingdom.

Overall, with Peter Tork's departure and The Monkees Present... failing to reach the Top 10, there were questions as to whether or not the Monkees' reputation could be salvaged or that they needed to be put out of their misery. It was undisputed, however, that in this battle of the bands against the Who, the Rolling Stones and several other bands, the Monkees might be the one of the first horses to drop out of the race.

Footnotes

1. All tracks are taken from Led Zeppelin, excluding "Heartbreaker" and "Moby Dick" from Led Zeppelin II, "Avron Knows" and "Spanish Blood" from Yardbirds '68, and the outtake "Baby Come On Home" from Coda. The track listing is based upon a live performance Led Zeppelin did on October 10, 1968; "Good Times Bad Times" and "Communication Breakdown" are even cross-faded together to form a medley, per the live performance.
2. OTL's The Monkees Present.
3. Tracks are mostly sourced from Head and the 2011 reissue of Instant Replay. "Mommy and "Daddy" is taken from OTL's The Monkees Present, and "Seeger's Theme" is from Missing Links Volume Two.

Author's Comments

Not a whole lot for me to talk about, really. The Monkees still split up at the start of the 1970s per OTL, and as for the Yardbirds' 70s output? It's pretty much Led Zeppelin in all but the name so they won't be talked about very much. There will, however, be changes to the output from Led Zeppelin II to Physical Graffiti, which I'll cover not only during Phase One, but Phase Two as well.

Chapter 7: Happy Jack (November 1967 - September 1968)

November 9, 1967
If the release of the Beatles' Merseyside was an indirect catalyst for Brian Wilson's untimely death and the Rolling Stones' temporary split, then the split of the Rolling Stones was a somewhat more direct catalyst for the Who attempting to become the new bad boys of rock and roll.

The Monkees, 1967.

The Monkees were formed by Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider for a television series which aired in 1966. The fictional band consisted of American actors Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz, and Michael Nesmith, as well as British actor David Thomas "Davy" Jones; they were Rafelson's and Schneider's attempt at an American Beatles with hit songs such as "Last Train to Clarksville" and "I'm a Believer".

Nesmith and Tork both had musical backgrounds whilst Dolenz and Jones' musical skills were limited, but the latter point did not stop the group from rebelling and taking creative control of their music. This rebellion would lead to the classic Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.[1], both produced by Chip Douglas, known for his work with the Modern Folk Quartet and the Turtles, the latter of which would become known for "Happy Together".

The cover for the Monkees' Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. album, released November 1967.

Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. had just been released and would go on to top the charts in the United States. On this particular morning, the Monkees were having breakfast together at a diner in Hollywood. Davy was the only one with a newspaper in hand.

"What's that you're reading, Dave?" Micky asked before taking a swig of orange juice.

"I'm reading this article about the Who," Davy explained. He turned the paper over so the others could read.

"'The Who Go All Out with Lily in Becoming Rock and Roll's New Bad Boy Group'," Michael read. "'Other Groups Try to Follow Their Footsteps.' What's so important about it?"

"Since the Rolling Stones had their blowout," said Davy, "it looks like every band and their grandmother is fighting in the press to try and see who will reign supreme. So what if..." He paused for effect. "We tried to beat the Who?"

"By becoming heavy players?" asked Peter, suppressing a laugh. "Forget it; that's not our style. And besides, we'd be squashed before we even got through round one."

"No, I don't mean play harder," said Davy. "I mean, what if we tried topping them... by putting out something even bigger than Headquarters and Pisces?"

MICHAEL NESMITH: "I thought the idea was sort of out there; The Monkees putting out a double album? That seemed ridiculous and could potentially hurt sales. But then again, Bob Dylan had put out Blonde on Blonde the year previous, so maybe not as ridiculous as it sounded." (1986)

PETER TORK: "Micky and Mike were up for it, but I was still sore when it came to [Chip] Douglas playing the keyboards more often than I did. It didn't help that I had minimal input on Pisces [Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.]. I eventually agreed, but if Chip was going to be our producer, I made them agree to the condition that I had more involvement." (2007)

November 11, 1967 - April 22, 1968

Monkees producer Chip Douglas, 1967.

The Monkees were back at RCA Victor Studios in Hollywood, California, with Chip Douglas once again back in the producer's seat. The first song cut for the next album - The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees - was Nesmith's "Tapioca Tundra". When the band told Douglas about their ambition to put out a double album, the producer thought they were mad.

CHIP DOUGLAS: "I appreciated the group's ambition, and suggested that they put out a single album instead, but they were persistent. It even got to the point that they recorded over thirty songs!" (1971)

The final track listing would consist of six songs each from Michael and Peter, seven from Micky and nine from Davy. Each Monkee presented his own style throughout; Davy Jones' Broadway rock, Michael Nesmith's country and western mixed with psychedelic experiments, Micky's rock and soul and Peter's minimalist approach.

MICKY DOLENZ: "It's a crazy album for sure, but I still love it for what it is." (2018)

The Monkees - The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees

Released: April 22, 1968

Recorded: June 14, November 11, 1967 - April 5, 1968

Producer: The Monkees, Chip Douglas

Track listing[2]

Side A

Through the Looking Glass

We Were Made for Each Other

Tapioca Tundra

Alvin

I'll Be Back Up on My Feet

Valleri

Writing Wrongs

Side B

Dream World

P.O. Box 9847

Magnolia Simms

The Poster

Long Title: Do I Have to Do This All Over Again

Daydream Believer

Zor and Zam

Side C

Tear the Top Right Off My Head

Auntie's Municipal Court

Carlisle Wheeling

Party

Lady's Baby

Nine Times Blue

Changes

Side D

If I Ever Get to Saginaw Again

Rosemarie

My Share of the Sidewalk

Come on In

Shake 'Em Up (and Let 'Em Roll)

War Games

Merry Go Round

Although it was being viewed as an attempt to beat the Who at their game, The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees still kept to the American band's initial roots whilst simultaneously being experimental and groundbreaking. Despite the album only reaching #3 in the United States and not charting at all in the United Kingdom, it was still popular with fans, although many have debated whether it should've been a single album or it was fine as it is; even the band members themselves.

DAVY JONES: "It was a great double album, it sold best as it could; it's The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees. Lighten up." (1996)[3]

Still, with hindsight, the Monkees shouldn't have worried about defeating the Who at their own game, because someone else was already taking care of that for them...

17 March - 24 May 1968
For the first time in eight months, the Rolling Stones were back in the recording studio. Their mission; to show the world who the real bad boys of rock and roll were.

Jimmy Miller with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, 1968.

A new producer had been called in following Andrew Oldham's departure. Mick Jagger's first (and seemingly only) suggestion was Jimmy Miller, whose previous work included Mr. Fantasy, Traffic's debut album, and Spooky Tooth's soon-to-be-released It's All About. The band was initially reluctant, given the two albums' psychedelic nature, not to mention the poor chart performance of Mr. Fantasy, but to Jagger, it was Miller or nothing, so the band acquiesced.

The sessions for the new album were far smoother compared to Their Satanic Majesties Request, even reworking the best songs from said sessions such as "2000 Man" and "The Lantern". Instead of attempting psychedelic again, the  Rolling Stones would instead return to their blues oriented roots, along with a much heavier sound. The title of their new album would even reflect on their situation - Lazarus of England. (An initial working title was Who Killed Christopher Robin?.)

MICK JAGGER: "We sort of 'died' when trying to record what was meant to be Satanic Majesties. That title brought up bad memories. Why the hell did we even think of trying psychedelic, for God's sake? The Stones are all about rock and roll, sex and drugs, not synthesizers, free love, and grass... Okay, maybe a little grass on the side. *laughs*"

KEITH RICHARDS: "Yeah, one way or another, the Rolling Stones are now back from the dead." (1968)

The comeback single for the Rolling Stones was "Jumpin' Jack Flash", with the politically oriented "Street Fighting Man" as its B-side. Although the former was a #1 hit in the United Kingdom, the latter also became a cult classic with fans. Throughout the sessions, Brian Jones had minimal input, especially after his fight with Keith Richards.

6 September 1968

The Rolling Stones - Lazarus of England

Released: 6 September 1968

Recorded: 17 March - 25 July 1968

Producer: Jimmy Miller

Track listing[4]

Side A

Sympathy for the Devil
Citadel
No Expectations
2000 Man
Jigsaw Puzzle

Side B

Jumpin' Jack Flash
Parachute Woman
The Lantern
Stray Cat Blues
Factory Girl
2000 Light Years from Home

Lazarus of England was hailed as a return to form for the Rolling Stones. It was their third album (following Could You Walk on the Water? and Aftermath) to be released with the same track listing in both the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as the last to feature Brian Jones as a prominent member. He would quietly depart from the band at the end of the year, before dying on 3 July 1969 by drowning in his swimming pool under the influence of drugs and alcohol. To this day, it remains a mystery exactly why he died and whether or not he was murdered.

20 September 1968

The Who - Magic Bus

Released: 20 September 1968

Recorded: October 1967 -  1968

Producer: Kit Lambert

Track listing[5]

Side A

Glow Girl

Faith in Something Bigger

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Odorono

Tattoo

Little Billy

Melancholia

Side B

Magic Bus

Dogs

Jaguar

Silas Stingy

Sunrise

Call Me Lightning

The Who had begun 1968 by touring Australia and New Zealand with fellow English group Small Faces. Both bands would wind up in trouble with local authorities and they were labeled as "unwashed, foul-smelling, booze-swilling no-hopers" by the New Zealand Truth. Yet despite this, the tour still continued into America and Canada.

For all the time they'd spent touring, the Who still found the time to record new material. Tracks such as "Silas Stingy", "Tattoo", and "Jaguar" were recorded following the release of Who's Lily?, and newer songs would include "Glow Girl", "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", and Top 40 hit "Magic Bus". The resulting album from the late-1967 sessions up to the summer of 1968 was called Magic Bus. It hit the Top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic, although the title track barely hit #25 in America.

KEITH MOON: "It was more laid back compared to Lily, and some people accused us for sort of 'pulling out', if you will. It didn't help that the Stones had come back with Lazarus. Things got awkward from there..." (1972)

ROGER DALTREY: "Then we'd heard from the grapevine that the Monkees were trying to beat us simply by being themselves with their double album [The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees]." (1989)

PETE TOWNSHEND: "At that point, we'd decided that if it was going to some kind of battle of the bands, then so be it. It had very much become 'Stones vs. Who vs. Monkees' vs. whoever dared to pull out their dicks. *laughs* In retrospect, we should've thrown in the towel a lot sooner." (2001)

MICKY DOLENZ: "If Pete Townshend and his bandmates wanted to declare war, they got it." (1986)

CHARLIE WATTS: "It became some sort of massive game of 'anything you can do'. We weren't going to be the only bands trying to best the other; others like the Byrds and Small Faces each wanted a slice of the action, as it were." (2005)

With the release of Lazarus of England and Magic Bus within the same month, it quickly became clear that the end of the 1960s was going to be a time to remember. The battle of the bands had begun!

Footnotes

1. I like to imagine that, because of butterflies, both Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. are released with their respective aborted track listings, as listed on Wikipedia.
2. All tracks from sides A and B (plus "Auntie's Municipal Court") are sourced from the 2010 deluxe reissue of The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees, using the aborted track listing as a basis with some tracks rearranged. All tracks from sides C and D (excluding "Auntie's Municipal Court") are taken from the Missing Links trilogy, focusing on the recordings from November 1967 to April 1968.
3. Paul McCartney said something similar about the Beatles' White Album on the Anthology documentary.
4. All tracks are taken either from Beggars Banquet or Their Satanic Majesties Request, excluding "Jumpin' Jack Flash", taken from GRRR!.
5. "Odorono", "Tattoo", "Jaguar", "Silas Stingy", and "Sunrise" all come from the 1995 reissue of The Who Sell Out; again, the jingles are removed. The remaining tracks come from either Odds & Sods or Thirty Years of Maximum R&B; "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is the unique remix taken from soniclovenoize's Who's for Tennis.

Author's Comments

Originally, I didn't have any plans for the Monkees in this story, but after hearing about Peter Tork's recent death from cancer, I thought, "how could I do a tribute to him in my own way?" The result was a double album version of The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees. I know it may seem excessive, but if Bob Dylan could put out a double album in 1966, and the Beatles put one out as well in late 1968, why not have the Monkees put out a double album during this time? Of course, in the 1960s, a double album was pretty much the exception, not the rule, but they were a bit more common in the 1970s, a time of excess and ego.

Next time, we get back to the Beatles, and we'll find out not only how different the India trip turns out, but also how they're taking these sudden developments around them.