Contrary to the impression I might have given with the sixth post in this ongoing series surveying past glories of A&M Records — I spend #TuesdaysWithJerry to remember late great mogul Jerry Moss — Joe Cocker was not in fact the first rock act signed to the rapidly rising label.
We know Moss’s push to expand beyond the softer styles of Sérgio Mendes, the Sandpipers and such grew determined after he was equally wowed and dismayed at Monterey Pop — the former feeling because of the talents on display, the latter because none of them were signed to A&M. But that shifting sensibility must have been developing at least simultaneous with his trip north, considering what LPs were on the horizon.
Far as I can tell, and setting aside imports like Procol Harum and the Move acquired via distribution deals, the label’s rock era begins in the Summer of Love with three Cali signings:
* Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart, who’d already crafted big hits for Jay & the Americans, Paul Revere & the Raiders and of course many more for the Monkees, now aiming to establish themselves as a recording act;
* The Merry-Go-Round, a short-lived L.A. launchpad for then-teenage singer-songwriter Emmit Rhodes that cut one terrific self-titled album in Nov. ’67, heavily influenced by the Beatles and Byrds, now a cornerstone of power-pop;
* And this gentleman, Lee Michaels, organist extraordinaire, the Steve Winwood of the West Coast, who I’d argue most deserves the distinction of being A&M’s first rock star.
Not because he was instantly a smash; until his surprise ’71 hit ‘Do You Know What I Mean,’ from his fifth set, Michaels was mostly a San Francisco sensation scantly noticed elsewhere. But that doesn’t mean his debut (‘Carnival of Life,’ very late ’67) and follow-up (‘Recital,’ ’68) pale by comparison to similar sounds that got greater attention at the time.
Shuffle ‘em in with some Traffic and Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape and hear how well they mingle.
Unlike Boyce & Hart and the Merry-Go-Round, deft wonders at jangly folk-rock with irrepressible melodies, Michaels’s metier was always heavier and heartier, less streamlined, more psychedelic and FM-primed. I’ll have more to say about what an underrated talent he was in a later post about his more impactful third and fourth assortments, and how they contrast with this earlier pair (also filed as part of #vinyltwosdays, hosted by @vinyl_is_life_). For now I’ll say they are rewarding, often remarkable recordings that would likely be gobsmacking finds to anyone in the market for late ‘60s rock that hasn’t been overplayed to the point of irrelevance.