Jerry Garcia documentary film on way

Another Jerry Garcia feature film is in the wings as documentary maker Malcolm Leo (“This Is Elvis”) confirmed plans to release what’s dubbed “Jerry: The Movie.”

Update: The filmmakers are “currently in talks” with several distributors, a spokeswoman for the project told PsychedelicSight.com. “Jerry: The Movie” is aiming for a spring 2012 release.

The 42,000 in attendance at the San Francisco Giants’ Jerry Garcia Day last summer got a sneak peek of the docu while filmmakers were busy shooting more footage. Behind the camera that day was Justin Kreutzmann, the son of Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann, who’s listed as a co-producer on the documentary.

The film’s based on three hours of conversation Leo shared with Garcia in 1987, a decade before the Grateful Dead guitarist’s death.

“The historic interview was shot on negative film with studio quality sound and lighting,” the producers said in a release, noting that they had secured rights.

The Garcia movie web site refers to it as “Jerry: The Movie,” but that could well be a working title since no name is identified in the press materials.

The filmmakers promise unseen concert footage and “rare home movies.”

Another Garcia movie, “Dark Star,” was announced in 2010 and is marked on imdb for a 2012 release. It’s a biopic about Garcia’s younger years, based on the book “Dark Star: An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia.”

For the documentary, Leo’s producing partner is John Hartmann, described as the former manager of Peter, Paul & Mary, Crosby, Stills & Nash, the Eagles and Poco. Hartmann apparently is the brother of the late comedian Phil Hartmann.

Leo’s credits include the films “This Is Elvis” and “The Beach Boys: An American Band.” For TV he presentations include “Crosby, Stills & Nash: Long Time Comin,’” “Red Hot & Blue” and “Rolling Stone: 20 Years of Rock ‘n Roll.”

Bill Kreutzmann’s credits include the short film “Backstage Pass,” a documentary, as well as a pair of videos connected to the Who.

Sean Bonniwell of Music Machine dies

Sean Bonniwell, leader of the dark-edged 1960s band the Music Machine, has died. He was 71.

The Music Machine had one hit single — 1966′s blazing “Talk Talk” — and produced only one album with its classic lineup. Still, the fuzz-and-Farfisa band is remembered as a vanguard act — an important link from garage rock to moody psychedelic rock and then the proto-punk bands.

Bonniwell wrote most of the Music Machine’s songs and fronted the L.A. band, which was known for wearing all black on stage — the garb including a single leather glove.

Rolling Stone headlined its appreciation of Sean Bonniwell: “The Dark Prince of Garage Rock.”

Bonniwell, a born-again Christian, left the music business as the 1960s faded away. He died Dec. 20, 2011, of lung cancer, in Visalia, Calif., various sources said.

“(Turn On) The Music Machine,” the first album, featured a half-dozen Bonniwell originals, notably “Masculine Intuition” and “The People in Me.” The songs appeared to be part self-therapy as Bonniwell inventoried his demons on vinyl. (Note: The first album appears in various forms, but seems to be best represented on Ultimate Turn On per Bonniwell’s web site.)

Routinely lumped in with garage bands, the Music Machine produced a more ambitious sound that brought to mind L.A. contemporaries Love — and anticipated bands-to-be such as Iron Butterfly and the Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Bonniwell sang in “Masculine Intuition”: “I’ve got a masculine intuition/And it/Do/Not/Never be wrong,” right in line with vintage Arthur Lee.

Unfortunately, the first album (on the dinky Original Sound label) was filled out with cover versions (“Cherry Cherry” and a great “Hey Joe”), leaving a stunning but skimpy record of Bonniwell at his peak. Band members reportedly quit over Bonniwell’s auteur approach, some of them forming the group Millennium.

Bonniwell signed with Warners and released a second album, called “The Bonniwell Music Machine.” Much of the material was recorded previously and it produced no hits. The Warner recordings can be found on Sundazed’s 1996 collection Beyond the Garage.

Bonniwell published his memoirs in 1996, also titled “Talk Talk.” He recorded a couple of solo albums and performed his Music Machine material on occasion, sometimes doctoring the lyrics to reflect his Christian bearings. Bonniwell recently marketed a Music Machine video documentary on his web site. (text continues)

* * *

Personal note: My first band, the Pack, popped up in 1966. Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. We stole the name from Terry Knight and the Pack. We copped the look from the Music Machine — black on black. We played “Talk Talk” and “Masculine Intuition,” and the rest of the songs came from the Yardbirds. Chris Campbell played drums. I sang and played bass. Wish I could remember the guitarist’s name, think it was Jerry.

Jim Sherwood of Zappa’s Mothers dies

Jim Sherwood, a saxophone player known for his work with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, has died at the age of 69.

The multi-instrumentalist, who shared Zappa’s love of the avant-garde and the nonsensical, worked on all Mothers albums, including the classics “Freak Out!” and “We’re Only in It for the Money.”

Sherwood died Dec. 25 of undisclosed causes.

Although Sherwood can be heard on the early Mothers records, he started out as a their roadie and didn’t join the band full-time until 1968. Sherwood also contributed vocals, vocal effects and the onstage comedy bits expected of all members.

In the 1950s, Sherwood attended high school with Zappa in California’s Inland Empire. Sherman played in several rock ‘n’ roll bands with the guitarist before the Mothers of Invention came to fame in L.A. in the mid-1060s.

After the Mothers disbanded, he performed on Zappa’s debut solo album, “Lumpy Gravy,” and continued to work off and on with the guitarist/composer until Zappa’s death in 1993.

The woodwind player also appeared in Zappa’s movie “200 Motels,” about the insanity of touring as a rock band, and the semi-documentary “Uncle Meat.”

The Mothers nicknamed Sherwood “Motorhead,” based on his love of working on cars. He also was dubbed “Larry Fanoga.”

Sherwood played sax with Reuben and the Jets, a Zappa-produced group that grew out of a doo-wop concept album. Later credits include the Mothers veterans band the Grandmothers and other projects with (ex-Mother) keyboardist Don Preston.

Donovan, Small Faces entering Rock Hall

Donovan and the Small Faces made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, putting a bit of psychedelic seasoning on the class of 2012.

Producer/engineer Glyn Johns, who worked with the heaviest of the British psychedelic rock bands, also is to be honored April 14 in Cleveland.

Beastie Boys, Guns N’ Roses, Laura Nyro and Red Hot Chili Peppers filled out the list of Rock Hall inductees. Faces (with Rod Stewart) share the honor with the band’s earlier incarnation, the Small Faces.

The early influencer nod went to bluesman Freddy King, the only black artist to be honored this year. Songwriter/TV rock producer Don Kirshner (“The Monkees”) is to be memorialized in the non-performer slot.

Rock producers Johns and Tom Dowd, and New Orleans studio owner Cosimo Matassa are to receive awards for musical excellence.

Donovan, a nominee last year, was among the first recording artists to chart with psychedelic songs. He also was among the first long-haired British pop stars busted for drugs. The artist (pictured, top) was closely associated with the hippie movement and flower pop.

Donovan’s psychedelic singles include “Sunshine Superman,” “Mellow Yellow,” “Hurdy Gurdy Man” and “Barabajagal (Love Is Hot).”

The album “Sunshine Superman” was among the first rock works to feature the sitar. Donovan also flirted with jazz and Indian music, making for a heady musical brew that remains underappreciated among casual music fans.

The Small Faces first scored with the heavily flanged psychedelic single “Itchycoo Park,” a global smash in 1967 despite a BBC ban for its druggie lyrics.

A year later came the classic LP “Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake,” an early concept album. Side 2 was devoted to an odd psychedelic fairy tale. Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane did the band’s heavy lifting until Marriott quit to form Humble Pie.

Then came the Faces, with three original members joined by up-and-coming vocalist Rod Stewart and guitarist Ron Wood. The Faces’ sound shifted to inebriated good-time rock n’ roll. This line-up enjoyed a short but brilliant career, cut short by the demands of Stewart’s solo success and Wood’s wooing by the Rolling Stones.

Producer/engineer Tom Dowd was mostly known for his work on the classic Atlantic R&B recordings, but he also dabbled in psychedelia with acts like Cream, Wishbone Ash and Chicago. Dowd was one of the first engineers to take stereo seriously and to employ multitracking. He died a decade ago after a long run with Criterion Studios in Miami.

Producer/engineer Glyn Johns boasts a sterling resume when it comes to psychedelic music. His credits include the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Small Faces, the Who, Led Zeppelin and Family. He’s best known for his work with the Stones. Johns remains active, recently working with Ryan Adams.

Passed over for induction were the Cure, Heart, the Spinners, Donna Summers, Rufus with Chaka Khan, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and Eric B. & Rakim.

The 27th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is set for April 14 in Cleveland. The video will run on HBO in early May. A limited number of public tickets go on sale Dec. 17.

Psychedelic music is well represented in the Hall of Fame: Inductees include the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, the Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, the Yardbirds, the Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, Miles Davis, Traffic, Santana, Frank Zappa, the Doors and the Who.

‘Last DJ’ Jim Ladd in Deep with SiriusXM

Veteran rock DJ Jim Ladd is going underground — via satellite.

Ladd, recently fired by longtime employer KLOS in Los Angeles, has found a home at Deep Tracks, the satellite radio channel reminiscent of the free-form FM stations of the 1960s and ’70s.

(Update: Listen to Ladd’s show on Deep Tracks from 4 p.m.-7 p.m. ET. Tom Petty’s show airs earlier on Thursdays as a result, at 5 p.m. ET.)

He celebrated the news by blasting the “stagnant, preprogrammed fodder that passes for radio today.”

Ladd, dubbed the “last DJ” by Tom Petty, was one of the few major-market rock radio hosts allowed to work without a playlist. He launches his nightly four-hour show in January, on SiriusXM Channel 27.

“I will be playing everything I want, from Pink Floyd to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, from the Doors to Moby Grape, freely and with no playlists,” Ladd said. “As I have always done throughout my career, I will be choosing all my own music (and) creating thematic sets.”

Ladd should prove a good fit for Deep Tracks, which focuses on lesser-known songs by top “underground” artists of the 1960s and ’70s, such as Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin.

The station’s stated concept is to play songs that didn’t chart, B-sides and live tracks. SiriusXM neighbor Classic Vinyl (channel 26) plays the era’s FM hits.

Deep Tracks is the closest thing to a psychedelic station on the satellite service. The channel’s “The Blacklight” program — “the finest in psychedelic rock” — is similar to Ladd’s hourlong “Headsets” segments. The Grateful Dead also have a channel of their own.

Deep Tracks’ big-name DJs are Bob Dylan and Tom Petty, both of whom do weekly free-form shows. Dylan’s show is so popular that archived episodes of his “Theme Time Radio Hour” now run 24/7 on an Internet-only SiriusXM channel (805).

Ladd seems eager to burn his bridges with terrestrial broadcasting: “Traditional FM radio has turned its back on the very thing that made rock radio the magical experience it was intended to be,” he said in the SiriusXM announcement of the deal.

“SiriusXM is kicking down the doors of the stagnant, preprogrammed fodder that passes for radio today by encouraging me to do my free-form show so we can all share this experience live as it happens.”

KLOS’ firing of Ladd came in a wave of layoffs created by Cumulus Radio’s buyout of Citadel Broadcasting. He wasn’t allowed a farewell show, so a local AM station offered him a one-time 3-hour slot to communicate with his fans. Rockers Roger Waters, John Fogerty, David Crosby, Jackson Browne, Slash and George Thorogood were among the well-wishers who phoned in.

Waters included Ladd in one of his concept albums and tours. Petty’s “The Last DJ” song was written about Ladd.

Ladd, who calls himself “The Lonesome L.A. Cowboy,” built his audience on the legendary L.A. station KMET. He wrote the tell-all book “Radio Waves: Life and Revolution on the FM Dial” (1992). A critic of the time greeted the release by saying that Ladd remains “trapped in a 1960s-1970s time warp.”

For his satellite show, Ladd plans regular interviews with rock stars as well as listener call-ins. The Deep Tracks host most affected by the Ladd signing would appear to be Meg Griffin.

Before the satellite deal was announced Dec. 2, Ladd reportedly was in talks with the city’s 100.3 The Sound.

SiriusXM chief Scott Greenstein said: “Jim Ladd is a classic rock radio icon who turned curating a list of songs into an art form. We are proud and excited to welcome his free-form style to SiriusXM.”

Original MTV VJs Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood, Alan Hunter and Martha Quinn also have shows on the satellite service.

Paint it Black: a special Record Store Day

Before you know it Record Store Day will be here again (OK maybe it’s already here). But hold on … didn’t we have one back in April?

Yep, but this time out it’s a special Black Friday edition — and the goodies are really good.

Record Store Day, of course, is the festive event in which we celebrate those indie music shops that soldier on in the mp3 era, providing cool physical media such as specialty CDs to those who still want them.

Vinyl records are the coolest of them all these days, and the hipper labels have responded with collectors albums, EPs and singles from artists of quality.

The Black Friday stash includes soon-to-be rareities from psychedelic-leaning acts such as the Beatles, Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett, the Yardbirds, the Byrds and the Who.

We’re spoiled here in L.A. (and in San Francisco) with the massive indie recording purveyor Amoeba, but of course most of the record stores being honored are small shops, run by music-addicted guys and gals. (View list of participating Record Store Day shops.)

Here’s a nod to my closest shop, Freakbeat Records in Sherman Oaks, Calif., where the guys don’t look at you funny if you ask for something by the Ultimate Spinach.

Here are the Black Friday Record Store Day exclusives from bands with 1960s psychedelic connections. Call it the Geezer Collection:

Syd Barrett: “Mick Rock.” Photography of the Pink Floyd founder by his pal Mick Rock, packaged with a 7-inch 45 of “Run Like Hell” and “Don’t Leave Me Now.” Capitol says the package comes “in a picture bag” with the 7-inch single on yellow heavyweight vinyl.”

The Beatles: “The Singles” box set of four 7″ picture-sleeve singles in a flip-top box. The A and B sides are “Ticket To Ride” and Yes It Is”; “Hey Jude” and “Revolution”; “Something” and “Come Together”; “Yellow Submarine” and “Eleanor Rigby.” The tracks are billed as newly remastered.

The Byrds: “Eight Miles High”/”Why.” 7-inch vinyl, 45rpm. Sundazed dug up these first-time-around RCA recordings (the versions most of us know were rerecorded at Columbia). “Eight Miles High” is destined for the top 10 of our Best 100 Psychedelic Songs list.

The Byrds: “The Times They Are A-Changing”/”She Don’t Care About Time.” 7-inch vinyl, 45rpm. This Dylan two-for was supposed to be released in the 1960s, but it never happened. Until now.

The Doors: “L.A. Woman” box set on 7″ Vinyl. Songs include “The Changling,” “Riders on the Storm,” “Love Her Madly” and another single of studio chat. The cover is the original artwork for the “L.A. Woman” album, with a naked woman nailed to a telephone pole.

Grateful Dead: “Live Europe ’72 Vol. 2″ in a four-album vinyl set. With an additional track. The double-disc CD was released in late September. Cover art: A new look at the Ice Cream Kid from artist Stanley Mouse. From Rhino, the Dead’s marketing partners.

Janis Joplin: “Move Over.” Four 7-inch singles with four unreleased tracks. “Magic of Love” and “Call On Me”; “Piece Of My Heart” and “Summertime”; “Raise Your Hand” and “Bo Diddley”; and “”Move Over” and “My Baby.” Some mono, some in stereo.

Janis Joplin: “The Classic LP Collection.” 180 gram vinyl versions of “Pearl,” “I Got Dem’ Kozmik Blues Again Mama,” Big Brother and the Holding Company’s first release and of course “Cheap Thrills.” From Legacy (Columbia). Exclusive to indie record stores until Monday, when orders start being filled at the Janis Joplin web site.

John Lennon: “Imagine 40th Anniversary Box Set.” Vinyl album of the stripped-down 2010 remix job overseen by Yoko Ono. Comes with six-track white vinyl 12″ and a poster. From Apple.

Pete Townshend: “The Quadrophenia Demos, Part 1.” On a 10-inch EP. In a twist, Part 2 won’t be available until Record Store Day 2012. The project was overseen and produced by Townshend. The demo tracks are “The Real Me,” “Cut My Hair,” “Punk,” “Dirty Jobs,” “Is it in My Head?” and “Anymore.” Don’t expect quadraphonic, though.

Pink Floyd: “The Wall.” Box set of three 7-inch singles. “Move Over” and “My Baby”; “Comfortably Numb” and “Hey You”; and “Run Like Hell” and “Don’t Leave Me Now.” The goodies just keep on coming from EMI’s massive Pink Floyd remastering project that began in September. Also just out on SACD.

The Yardbirds: “Ten Little Indians” and “Drinking Muddy Water” on a 7″ single. From the band’s waning days, in which Jimmy Page gets all psychedelic with reverse echo — trying to save the A-side, a strident cover of a Harry Nilsson song. The B-side is an excellent white boy blues workout from “Little Games.” From Sundazed.

The Yardbirds: “Ha Ha Said the Clown” and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor” on a 7-inch single. A 1967 record never released in the U.K. Two solid of the best late-period songs — one pop, one rock — with Jimmy Page leading the way on guitar. From Sundazed.

Of course there are quite a few contributions from acts in many genres, across many decades. Check out the Black Friday music collection. See you in the queue.

No. 77: ‘Ball of Confusion’

Motown’s hitmaking machine flirted with psychedelic sounds in the late 1960s, in large part a commercial move intended to keep the label relevant and clicking with the beautiful people.

Leading the way were the Temptations, a group in transition after the departure of troubled lead singer David Ruffin.

The group fell under the influence of of Sly and the Family Stone — whose “Dance to the Music” arrived like a thunderbolt in early 1968 — and convinced producer Norman Whitfield to bring some of that funk, chaos and communal vibe to the Temptations’ sound. In particular, the Temps liked the Family Stone’s technique of changing singers multiple times during a song.

The first “psychedelic soul” single out of Motown was “Cloud Nine” (October ’68). Criticized as a pro-drug song, it nonetheless reached No. 6 on the Billboard Pop chart. It sprawled over 3 minutes and 37 seconds, an eternity for soul singles of the time. The Temps, for the record, denied “Cloud Nine” was a drug ditty, but no one believed them.

Then came “Runaway Child, Running Wild” (No. 6, 4:53), “I Can’t Get Next to You” (No.1, 2:51) and (another drug song) “Psychedelic Shack” (No. 9, 3:56).

On the Temps’ psychedelic soul albums, some of the songs ran considerably — “Runaway Child” doubled in length — and the stereo studio stunts came into play. (AM radio was mono, of course.)

The most successful Temps’ song in terms of the psychedelic aesthetic came last: “Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today).”

Like the other psychedelic soul songs, it coated the ace Motown songwriting in a wash of sonic special effects. Whitfield’s bag of tricks included double-tracked guitar, wah-wah, fuzztone, reverb, phase-shifting and dizzying stereo imaging.

Many of Motown’s “psychedelic” songs felt like affectations, but “Ball of Confusion” was different. It could go toe-to-toe with Sly Stone at his heaviest.

“Ball of Confusion” worked its magic at a frantic pace, building to some serious head-spinning disorientation. Here was a mind-bending song, among the most radical of Top 10 1960s singles.

The lyrics seemed left-wing political, but they spoke to much of America. In 1968, people simply were overwhelmed and sick of the turmoil.

So many problems to cite, and so the lyrics devolve at several points into a listing of the world’s woes. The following verse was delivered lightning fast by three singers:

Eve of destruction, tax deduction
City inspectors, bill collectors
Mod clothes in demand
Population out of hand
Suicide, too many bills
Hippies moving to the hills,
People all over the world are shouting “End the War”

Key moments: The cool producer’s count-in, the Funk Brothers’ unexpected heaviness, Stevie Wonder’s harmonica, the free-form drumming and, especially, Melvin Franklin’s Greek chorus contribution: the deep-voiced “And the band played on …”

One of the record’s most memorable lines was “the Beatles’ new record’s a gas.” Perhaps a throw-away, but in ’68 it played like an olive branch from blacks to whites.

And the fusion of hippie rock and Motown soul became manifest for one glorious moment.

No. 29: ‘Spirit’ (debut album)

The great and criminally underappreciated L.A. band Spirit rarely makes the list of the ’60s psychedelic groups.

These days Spirit mostly is remembered for “Nature’s Way,” an FM radio classic. It’s a wistful midtempo plea for ecological sanity that appeared on the original band’s fourth and final album.

Two years before “Nature’s Way,” in 1968, a much heavier Spirit blasted its way onto the scene with another ecological warning, this one awash in psychedelic touches and heavy guitar.

The band sang:

Look beneath your lid some morning
See those things you didn’t quite consume
The world’s a can
for your fresh garbage

That serving of tight, light-heavy rock soon was followed by the dark psychedelic masterpiece “Mechanical World.”

As a one-two punch, these side 1 tracks from the album “Spirit” rank up there with any psychedelic concoctions served up in 1967 or 1968 by Hendrix, Cream or the San Francisco bands.

Spirit never settled for only one style, however, and its first album reflected the bandmembers’ backgrounds in jazz, blues, ethnic music, folk and hard rock. The distorted guitar and overlaid reverb of “Fresh Garbage,” for example, retreats for a midsong jazz piano break by John Locke, who’d played in a jazz combo with drummer Ed Cassidy.

You could make the argument that anything guitarist Randy California played sprung from a seed of psychedelia. For good reason.

At age 15, the guitarist hooked up with an undiscovered Jimi Hendrix.

“I paid a visit to Manny’s Music in Manhattan,” California wrote in the liner notes to the “Spirit” CD. “It was there, in the back of the store jamming on a white Stratocraster, I saw Jimi James. Our eyes met and time seemed to stop” (cue swelling music).

Young California joined Jimi James and the Blue Sparks, playing Cafe Wha in Greenwich Village for three months. When Hendrix left for England, the teenage guitarist’s mom said he couldn’t go.

How much of Hendrix came from California — and how much of California came from Hendrix — remains a mystery since neither had made solo recordings at this point. Someone who’d never heard the album “Spirit” probably could be convinced that Hendrix played guitar.

On the 5-plus-minute “Mechanical World,” California delivers two jaw-dropping solos, the first among his best. At one point his heavy-sustain guitar soars until it’s unbearable — then crashes to the ground to great dramatic effect.

In fact, everything “Mechanical World” is played for maximum drama. Jay Ferguson’s vocals sound as if they were summoned from the grave. The funeral drums send home the lyric: “Death falls so heavy on my soul/Death falls so heavy, makes me moan.”

The strings of arranger Marty Paich do a graveyard dance with California’s guitar, sometimes playing in unison. The song ends as if it were the soundtrack to a film, with elegiac strings ushering out the listener — until a final guitar/drums burst puts the nail in the coffin.

In spots, “Mechanical World” anticipates Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” of 1975, bringing us to the next song …

“Taurus,” written by California, is a lovely instrumental, built around fingerpicked guitar arpeggios. Heard fresh today, the number would be perceived as a loose “Stairway to Heaven” cover.

But Led Zeppelin recorded “Stairway” three years after “Taurus,” the classic power ballad arguably another in the long line of Zep’s “borrowed” songs.

California wrote in the “Spirit” liner notes that fans often asked about the similarity and he responded by saying the bands toured together in their early years and that Led Zeppelin covered “Fresh Garbage” as part of a hard-rock medley.

“Girl in Your Eye” makes precise use of the Indian sitar sound introduced to rock only a year before. Producer Lou Adler worked with the Mamas and Papas during this period and brought a tight aesthetic to many of these songs. Even the longer psychedelic numbers had snap.

“Uncle Jack,” a hard-rocker with a faint English accent, sounds like one of Noel Redding’s contributions to the Jimi Hendrix Experience (Redding would later play with California). It features a great double-tracked solo by California.

“Straight Arrow” was written about bassist Mark Andes’ actor father. “Topanga Windows” re-creates the band’s communal experience in the L.A.-area canyon. “The Great Canyon Fire in General” (more Topanga) features more heavy California licks set amidst a heady swirl of drums and piano.

The 11-minute instrumental “Elija” salutes free jazz and, perhaps, Frank Zappa. Its midsection brings to mind King Crimson. The Butterfield Blues Band’s “East-West” of 1966 almost surely provided inspiration.

Unreleased tracks on Epic’s 1996 reissue of the “Spirit” CD show more of the band’s jazz roots, with the prog rock blast “Verusaka” and the straight-ahead “Free Spirit.”

Jazz was just starting to appear in rock, with Spirit among the earliest purveyors of what came to be known as jazz rock, along with Donovan and Al Kooper’s Blood Sweat and Tears.

(This review written in the foothills of Topanga Canyon. All references to Spirit indicate the original classic lineup, although Randy California and his stepfather, Cassidy, continued to use the name for their bands.)

Dead brings to life Dave’s Pick CD series

Thought the Dead marketing machine was done with live archival releases?

Fat chance. The music never stops. Not fade away. And all that …

Six years after the famed series “Dick’s Picks” was retired — and just weeks after the “Road Trips” series reached the end of the road — the Dead’s live legacy continues with “Dave’s Picks.”

Dick was the Dead’s longtime archivist Dick Latvala. Dave is David Lemieux, the current archivist, who took over the job when Latvala died in 1999.

Dave’s Picks will be a numbered limited edition series limited to 12,000 copies (that number could be elastic, based on previous Dead decisions). The CDs will be close to Dick’s Picks in philosophy, Lemieux says, featuring complete shows.

The Dead’s website promises “the finest unreleased shows from the master tapes, brought to life with HDCD sonics by Jeffrey Norman, period photos, and informative liner notes.”

The first release comes from a May 25, 1977, show at the Mosque in Richmond, Va.

Dead.net offers an advance subscription package with a lower price ($95) and a bonus disc.

“This is the most excited we’ve been since the ‘View from the Vault’ (DVD) series,” says the excitable Lemieux, who says 90 percent of his personal listening time is spent on Dead audio.

“Mostly it’s going to be two-tracks (as with the Dick’s Picks and Road Trips series).”

The archivist invites fans’ input: “We not only welcome your input, we need your input. … There’s too many shows and too many hours. … Everyone’s opinion matters to us. If you think that such-and-such is a great show, we’re going to listen to it.”

To contact the team, email vault@dead.net — put “Grateful Dead” subject line.

In other Dead product news:

• The 2011 edition of the Grateful Dead Almanac no longer will be printed on paper. “Yes, here in the second decade of the 21st Century (and after a bit of screaming and kicking), we’ve (gone all digital),” the editors say. View the online Grateful Dead Almanac.
• Rock book author Paul Grushkin (“Grateful Dead: The Official Book of the Dead Heads”) takes another look at the band’s hardcore fans with “Dead Letters: The Very Best Grateful Dead Fan Mail.”
• The “Road Trips” CD series has come to an end with No. 4. Vol. 5, capturing the Boston Music Hall show from June 9, 1976, and (partly) June 12. The series ran four years and released 17 discs.
• Lemieux’s massive “Europe ’72, Vol. 2″ had a cup of herbal tea on the Billboard album charts, topping out at No. 193 in the week of its release.

Concert review: The Yardbirds in L.A.

Playing fast and loose, the Yardbirds rolled into L.A. with their latest crop of talented young musicians. An audience that started out waiting to be impressed ended up cheering and howling its approval of the still potent U.K. band.

No mere oldies act, the group sometimes bill themselves as the Most Blueswailing Yardbirds. For good reason: After almost a half century, they remain terrific (rock) interpreters of the U.S. blues masters.

The set list from the Canyon Club (in L.A.’s west Valley) included Bob Diddley’s “I’m a Man,” Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning” and Eddie Boyd’s “Five Long Years,” all Yardbirds’ showstoppers since the mid-’60s. The band’s own “New York City Blues” and “The Nazz Are Blue” fit right in there with the American classics.

(Photos by Arnie Goodman. They are of an earlier tour stop in New York.)

Two original Yardbirds remain, the rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja and drummer Jim McCarty, both sizable contributors to the original sound. (For example, both receive songwriting credit on most of the album that came to be called “Roger the Engineer,” the group’s best studio album.) They’ve been reviving the Yardbirds on and off for 20 years, since the band made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Dreja and McCarty didn’t stray from the canon, even though they’ve recorded several well-received albums over the years.

The crowd expected the hits and key album tracks, and got them: “Heart Full of Soul,” “For Your Love,” “Over, Under, Sideways, Down,” “Shapes of Things” and “Mister You’re a Better Man Than I.”

The Yardbirds often are credited with creating the first psychedelic record, “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago.” (It’s number 10 on our list of the Best Psychedelic Singles.) That Beck-Page workout blew a few minds at the show. The band thoughtfully threw in the trippy studio chatter from the record, delighting the hardcores.

Filling out the Yardbirds lineup are the guitarist Ben King and two relatively new members (2009), singer/harmonica player Andy Mitchell and bassist David Smale.

King has the monumental task of following the Yardbirds’ 1960s godhead of guitarists — Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. (Beck’s been known to pop up at Yardbirds’ gig or two, but no dice this night.)

King did yeoman’s work on most of the numbers, but kicked into high gear for the Page songs: “Little Games” and the original “Dazed and Confused.” Drummer McCarty pointed out that although Page had gone on to play “Dazed” with “some other group,” well, they did it first. (The song was titled “I’m So Confused” back in ’68.)

Singer Mitchell wisely didn’t try to imitate original singer Keith Relf, but on harmonica he sounded uncannily like the late rock star. Mitchell drew cheers several times, including one bit where he finished a song singing quite audibly without the help of a microphone. He delivered all the humor and cock-rock attitude needed for a smoking “The Train Kept A-Rollin.’ ”

Bass player Smale hit the walloping turnaround bottom notes and flourishes that were a key part of the band’s original sound — much like the Animals, the Yardbirds built some of their best songs around an infectious bass-line. The young man has the 1960s heavy bass thing down to an art.

Keith Relf often said that no one ever captured the real Yardbirds on record — the live performances were everything. Good to see tradition carry on.

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