Revisiting A&M Records No. 39
Phil Ochs: ‘Tape from California’ (July ’68)
When last we encountered the increasingly troubled, ultimately tragic antihero of the ‘60s folk scene, he had shed some (but never all) political skin in a bold leap away from his headlines-driven Elektra past and headlong into an expansive A&M era in which his allegorical approach might reach new sonic heights to match his imaginative wordplay.
Revisiting A&M Records No. 29
We Five: ‘You Were on My Mind’ (September ‘65)
We Five: ‘Make Someone Happy’ (December ‘67)
Backtracking here to pair this SF ensemble’s debut sensation with the overly delayed follow-up that didn’t arrive until the quintet was breaking up, at least temporarily. As the horribly written back-cover notes indicate, the latter album was reason for fans to be both glad for their return yet sad that ‘(t)here is this album and there will be no more albums because there is no more We 5 [sic].’
Revisiting A&M Records No. 25
Phil Ochs: ‘Pleasures of the Harbor’ (November ‘67)
In hindsight there couldn’t have been a more sadly ironic song for this under-appreciated folkie to choose as an opening statement for the next phase of his career.
Shooting from the hip here, so feel free to kindly counter this claim in comments, but I suspect there was no more prolific group on either side of the Atlantic in 1969 than Fairport Convention, and only Led Zeppelin achieved more impactful strides within those 12 months.
FC is the subject of this installment of #TuesdaysWithJerry, my journey through A&M Records’s past, in tribute to that label’s late co-founder Jerry Moss. I’ll get to why you’re as likely to find UK editions on Island Records as stateside pressings.