The Occidental Weekly

As I'm sure you're aware, the musical Hair is currently playing in Keck. This week we're going to dig into the vault and discover seven great obscure songs from the 1960s.

1. "You Don't Know Me" Ray Charles. This song comes from The Genius' groundbreaking 1962 album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. On this record, Charles covered the songs of many country composers, including this Cindy Walker-Eddy Arnold piece. It's a beautiful and heartbreaking number that places Charles' R&B trained vocals against simple instrumental backing.

2. "Telstar" The Tornados. Here we have a surf-rock instrumental from 1962. It was the first song by a British act to top the Billboard charts. The band's producer, Joe Meek, wrote this piece and named it after the recently launched AT&T Telstar communications satellite. Despite it sounding a bit dated now, it has a sci-fi vibe that is a perfect musical tribute to the space age.

3. "I Who Have Nothing" Ben E. King. These days, most people only know Ben E. King for singing "Stand By Me." However he has a much richer catalogue of songs. This 1963 song tells the tale of a man whose dream girl is being wooed by a rich fellow. The song rises above such a clichéd premise though. Musically, there is a Spanish and almost operatic influence. King's emotion is echoed by a mournful trumpet and counterpointed by a sultry string section.

4. "Diddy Wah Diddy" Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. Before releasing his crazed masterpiece, Trout Mask Replica, Beefheart and his band specialized in garage rock. This 1966 cover of a Bo Diddley song features a crunchy blues thump. Beefheart's vocals place him as a good old-fashioned blues shouter and his harmonica solo is not to be missed.

5. "Mississippi Goddam" Nina Simone. This song, recorded live at a 1964 Carnegie Hall concert, is described by Simone as a "show tune, but the show hasn't been written yet." This fast moving song was one of Simone's first big political songs. She directly addresses the racism of the day and refutes the suggestion that activists should go slow.

6. "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixing-To-Die-Rag" Country Joe & the Fish. This satirical 1967 number comes from the heart of the counterculture: Berkeley, CA. Country Joe encourages Wall Street to help bankroll the Vietnam War and that Uncle Sam needs the help of all strong men. Later, he tells mothers across the country that they should be excited to "have your boy come home in a box." At the track's end, the county fair-style music gives way to a hail of gunfire and bombs.

7. "I Had To Much To Dream (Last Night)" The Electric Prunes. This 1966 garage rocker is the genre's definitive song. This song was initially conceived as an orchestral ballad, but that idea was quickly dropped in favor of a hard charging proto-punk sound. The track opens with the sound of an oscillating guitar played backwards and has incredible guitar fuzz and drumming. Six years after this song was released, it was chosen as the lead off-track for the famous garage rock collection Nuggets. That album features over 100 "lost" rock classics from the '60s, which I highly recommend it.

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