Here you get a brief sample of the rare original mix of Aoxomoxoa, replaced by a remix in 1971. This track is exclusive to the compilation. The original pressing claims their album would be titled Music From The Hit Factory, but it was changed to Pottery Pie. I think from Carnegie Hall, same with the other spoken track. On this forum, he is probably also known for playing guitar on "Valleri" and other Monkees songs. The original pressing claims the album would be titled In A Mellow Mood. The original pressing gave a bio of the group. Apparently the album was a complete flop (I believe some record stores of the time wouldn't stock it because of the band name) and the band broke up soon afterwards, so the second pressing had no bio, just blank space! The band included guitarist Fred Tackett, who returned to a successful studio career and joined Little Feat in the late 80's.
I'm loving these period-piece sampler albums. I'd never heard of the Loss Leaders until I found the archives at Willard's Wormholes a while ago but this thread has reawakened my interest in the series. I guess that, as mail order-only releases, very few made their way across the Atlantic. We made do with the great UK budget samplers from CBS, Island, Harvest, Liberty, etc. from the late-'60s/early-'70s (mostly single albums but there were a few very memorable double-LPs, too). These were all sold through the record shops. The late-'70s UK punk & new wave scene brought mail order-only releases from Stiff Records, together with the cassettes from the NME. Overall, though, sampler albums were – and still are – FUN. They're time capsules!
Wow-I thought there were only 5 or 6 of these. Would never have discovered Captain Beefheart without them.
Coincidentally, I happened to relisten to side one of this album a few days ago and enjoyed the Blue Velvet Band track, which I hadn't noticed before. The band also included Eric Weissberg ("Dueling Banjos") and Richard Greene, still an active fiddle player. The liner notes describe the album as a country Super Session.
How long did these titles stay in print for? I found some label scans for the The 1969 Warner/Reprise Songbook (1969) that were printed on the 1973-1975 Warner Bros. "Burbank" picture label: http://www.45worlds.com/i/115760cbaa0d0d46c73
For those of you who might be interested, I compiled a 16-page artist index of all 35 issues that Captain Willard posted last year. The link is at the bottom of the text portion here: http://www.willardswormholes.com/archives/28018
I have Display Case #7 filed just after my Loss Leaders collection. It has a good bit of overlap with Burbank, but a lot of different stuff,too.
October 10, 1969 (PRO 351 - 1969) October 10, 1969 is a bit of a controversial title. There has been some quarrel about whether or not it is a real Loss Leader. For one thing, it is a single-disc, not double like the first two. Second, it was never included in the back catalog in the inner-sleeve advertisements. In fact, the one ad that does mention it does not mention Loss Leaders. It gets included on the following grounds: it was a mail-order only item, the same creative staff seems to be in place, and the pitch, while not mentioning Loss Leaders, is still the same Loss Leaders pitch. The price of $1 for a single album is logical, given the Loss Leader price of $2 for a double. So, I'm going with the reference sites and counting it as the third Loss Leader. What I speculate is that Warners probably wanted to gauge the reaction to the first two albums first. They may have decided to put a single album out there to compare its performance to the double albums. Maybe some adjustments were being made to the program, which apparently garnered a lot of public response. The blurb in the upper left corner of the rear jacket suggests that maybe things were a little behind schedule. Perhaps its exclusion from future ads was due to its title, which automatically dates it. Who knows? At any rate, it's in. Notes: Liner notes by John Mendelsohn, who also wrote for Rolling Stone. The title October 10, 1969 refers to its release date. Final Loss Leader of 1969. Rear cover/liner notes scan can be viewed here: http://www.willardswormholes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Back-cover-big.jpg Tracklist A1 –Norman Greenbaum Spirit In The Sky 3:57 A2 –Levitt & McClure Reflections 2:42 A3 –Denny Brooks I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free 3:28 A4 –Ruthann Friedman People 3:40 A5 –The Kinks Shangri-la 5:17 B1 –Frank Zappa Peaches En Regalia 3:58 B2 –Fleetwood Mac Rattlesnake Shake 3:30 B3 –Eric Andersen Lie With Me 2:25 B4 –The Fifth Avenue Band Fast Freight 3:37 B5 –The Mike Post Coalition Bubble Gum Breakthrough 3:31 Song Commentary: A1 –Norman Greenbaum Spirit In The Sky 3:57: Judging from the pleas in the advertisement for this album and the praise heaped on Greenbaum on the jacket, it seems that Warners very much was looking for a hit here, and they got it. The single peaked at #3 in early 1970 with sales in excess of 2 million, making it the most successful single released by Reprise at that time. The song remains popular to this day. Greenbaum was critically injured in a car accident earlier this year; little news has been released about his condition since then. A2 –Levitt & McClure Reflections 2:42: This is a very pretty country-rock instrumental, with gentle picking on dueling guitars, taken from the 1969 Warner/Seven Arts release Living in the Country, produced by Ron Elliott of the Beau Brummels. This album apparently went nowhere, and the duo split. Marc McClure moved to Capitol, where he was a founding member of Joyous Noise, a country-psych outfit that lasted for two albums. He also turned up in Spanky and Our Gang in 1976. Dan Levitt seems to have dropped out of music (someone on the 'net claimed he taught guitar for awhile) This album, while pretty obscure, seems to enjoy a great reputation among the rare few who have actually heard it. A3 –Denny Brooks I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free 3:28: Singer/Songwriter Brooks was a Van Dyke Parks discovery, and Parks wrote the liner notes to his lone album, Denny Brooks (1969). Brooks got a lot of help on his album; in addition to Parks' endorsement, musicians on the album include Jim Keltner, Carl Radle, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Bernie Leadon, David Marks, Merry Clayton, Maxine Waters, Clydie King, and some of the Nitty Gritty Dirt band. Despite such talent, the song itself is fairly dull and cluttered-sounding, with Brook's nasal vocals the weakest link. He apparently was never given another shot at stardom, although he did write "Shambala", which was a major hit for Three Dog Night, and "My Maria" a hit for country duo Brooks and Dunn. A4 –Ruthann Friedman People 3:40: This is an inoffensive acoustic ditty, delivered in an atmospheric keening style that vaguely recalls a sweeter Grace Slick. Friedman is best known for writing "Windy" for the Association, apparently while crashing at David Crosby's pad. The liner notes suggest that she is the female Randy Newman, which I definitely am not hearing, but she never released another album after her 1969 debut, Constant Companion. She had been a fixture at the Troubadour in West Hollywood for a couple of years. A5 –The Kinks Shangri-la 5:17: The Loss Leaders liner notes do give hints of there being certain favorite performers among the Warner roster, but none received such over-the-top, lavish praise in the notes as the Kinks, who make their third appearance in three albums with "Shangri-la", their second song taken from Arthur. If you didn't buy it by November 1969, your friends at Warner advocated stripping you of the title "rock and roll devotee" and tearing your sideburns off in public. Earlier liner notes bitched at the radio stations for not playing them. As for the song, it is one of the best ones from the Arthur album, an ode to suburbia. B1 –Frank Zappa Peaches En Regalia 3:58: This was taken from Hot Rats, which was released almost simultaneously with this compilation. "Peaches En Regalia" was actually released as an A-side single, and is probably one of Zappa's more well-known compositions. Unlike the Mothers material we've seen so far, which seemed to be included primarily for its weirdness factor, this tones down the wackiness for actual melody and structural integrity. This marks the fourth Zappa tune so far in the series, putting him in the lead. B2 –Fleetwood Mac Rattlesnake Shake 3:30 This is a menacing Peter Green blues-rock cut from Fleetwood Mac's third UK album, Then Play On, from 1969. Danny Kirwin had just joined the band, and Green was on his way out after this album. Little did Warners know what a juggernaut the band would become half a decade later. This is probably my favorite cut from this album. B3 –Eric Andersen Lie With Me 2:25 "Lie with Me" is a gentle pipeful of hippie sentiment with a very sweet arrangement from the heavily-promoted Andersen, who was still seen as a potential superstar in 1969, despite being six albums into his career already with little more than a cult following to show for it. This song is from his seventh, titled simply Eric Andersen, released in 1970. As a songwriter he was no slouch; his songs were recorded by Judy Collins, the Grateful Dead, Linda Ronstadt, Bob Dylan, and Johnny Cash, among others. As a performer, he was just another singer/songwriter at a time when there was a surplus. Likable, but it is easy to see why he never quite became a household name. B4 –The Fifth Avenue Band Fast Freight 3:37 The production credits on this one are interesting: Eric Jacobson, Jerry Yester, and Zal Yanovsky. the latter two members of the recently disbanded Lovin' Spoonful. "Fast Freight" sounds like what the Lovin' Spoonful might have sounded like if they had lasted to the end of the 60's, and if John Sebastian were more of a rocker than a folkie. The band's self-titled 1969 debut album became a cut-out fairly quickly, and the band imploded. Discogs has them listed as releasing an album of new material in 1990; I'm not sure if it was really them or not. Little information exists about them. B5 –The Mike Post Coalition Bubble Gum Breakthrough 3:31 This is an instrumental featuring very prominent horns. What is remarkable about it is that is sounds almost exactly like any of a dozen themes to TV action dramas of the 70's. You could almost call this "Theme from an Imaginary Action Drama", it probably made a fine showcase for Post's particular talent, which was indeed writing TV themes to many TV shows in the 70's and 80's. This is from his 1969 album Fused, which was released on the heels of a Grammy award for the arrangement of Mason Williams' "Classical Gas". The only quibble I have with this cut is that a typical TV theme says what it needs to in under a minute, and this one starts to drag once that minute has passed. Advertisement: Additional Thoughts: This album perhaps has the highest ratio of good songs of any of the three we've looked at so far. However, I'd rank it third anyway. The issue is the single disc. With the first two, you get a real feeling of embarking on a journey full of mystery. With only 5 songs per side, this dispenses with that mystery and sense of discovery, which is half the fun of these compilations. There's nothing wrong with this album, but it just isn't quite the same experience. The next release in the series would come in 1970 and return the series to its original two-disc format. I almost see this as a "transitional" entry into the series, as Warners decided what to do with it next. Most Appearances: Joni Mitchell, 4 (only 2 songs) The Fugs, 3 The Mothers of Invention, 3 The Kinks, 3 The Everly Brothers, 3 Van Dyke Parks, 3 Up Next: The Big Ball (PRO 359 -1970), either late tonight or (more likely) tomorrow.
I'm not sure how long they remained in print, but all of the titles (except October 10, 1969) remained available in the inner sleeve ads well into the mid-70's and perhaps until near the very end of the series.
I think the double albums stayed in print until around the end of the series in the early 80's. I have a copy of the Days Of Wine And Vinyl release on the late 70's white Warners label.
Songbook, like most of the other Loss Leaders, is a 5-star album, and also like most others, contains some rarities available nowhere else at the time. Tom Northcott's Baroque-flavored cover of Donovan's "Sunny Goodge Street" is a gem. Tom was briefly in a group with Susan Jacks of the Poppy Family (before the Poppy Family). Side 3, labeled "Not for Air Play", resulted in a lot of nasty letters to the label, leading to a late warning on the inner sleeves that listeners who were offended by a certain type of lyrical content should stick with Schlagers.
Rechecking I found that the one I mentioned with the announcer was not a Display Case, but was titled Hit Sounds Of Merrie Melodies. It does have some interesting artists who never made the Loss Leader albums, including Richard Thompson, who reportedly had the worst selling album in Warners history with his solo debut Henry The Human Fly.
Record Show is another winner and a great followup to Songbook. I especially love the folk-flavored Side 2.
One glance at John Mendelsohn's liner notes from the Kinks Kronikles compilation from a few years later makes it clear how big a fan he was. A bit later when his band (Christopher Milk) got the chance to record for Reprise, he would be disappointed when Ray Davies didn't agree to produce the album.
Just a couple weeks ago, I was disappointed to notice that my copy of the 1969 Record Show has one record that's sides 1 and 4 (green label) and one that's 3 and 4 (white label). Great thread!
I'm glad he persevered. His giving up music would have been a terrible loss. His new record is the best material he has released in years IMHO.
Somehow I missed out on October 10,1969 although I do have many of the songs on other albums. Question: Is Denny Brooks another name for Daniel Moore? "Shambala" and "My Maria" are both credited to Moore. I have Moore's album Riding a Horse While Holding Up the World which contains his own renditions of both songs.
This is a fantastic thread! I ordered Songbook, Record Show, and then Schlagers by mail in the '70s, then lost touch with the Loss Leaders for several years until I started scaring up many of the others in thrift stores and flea markets. I've been seeking them out for years now and have so far collected 22 of them. Ah, the thrill of the hunt!
That is a question I was trying to figure out. I found three or four unrelated websites claiming he wrote those songs, but I could not find a site that confirmed he is the same guy using two names. I am assuming Denny Brooks was a stage name, but I can't say for sure.
Ruthann has lately returned to live performing and has a new album (Chinatown) three years ago, followed by a compilation (Hurried Life) of unreleased tracks. A friend of mine plays with her and says she's a sweetheart.
I found this site where it seems Dan Moore and Denny Brooks were two different people, and that Moore produced Brooks's album. http://www.groovytunesday.com/descriptions/music/denny_brooks.html
Looks like Brooks was more of a cipher than I thought... I wonder if Van Dyke still returns his phone calls?