D-Sides, Orphans, and Oddities

Their name was a provocation—“a way of expressing disdain for governmental policy. It was like hanging the flag upside down,” as the group’s Dorothy Moskowitz told Terrascope. But if you were young in 1968, there was a lot going on—LSD, Vietnam, The White Album, Stockhausen—and the United States of America somehow sounded like all of it at once: a counterculture state-of-the-union address. Their debut album was the work of a group of UCLA students working under the direction of Joseph Byrd, an ethnomusicologist and former student of John Cage. Byrd, a card-carrying Communist, envisaged an avant-garde rock band with radical politics at its center, and from that combustible starting point came a suite of music that pulls in all directions. Fuzz-rock and musique concrète leaks into traditional jazz and ragtime, with Moskowitz’s beautiful but affectless voice a rare constant. By any conventional yardstick, it’s a jumble, but think of it as the musical equivalent of a Rauschenberg collage and it all makes sense.

In my life I have owned many, many albums. This is the only one I've owned three times in different iterations. I love this record. All the trouble. All the failure. All the noise. 

United States of America - American Metaphysical Circus (1968)

United States of America - Garden of Earthly Delights (1968)

United States of America  - I Won’t Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar (1968)

United States of America - Love Song For a Dead Che (1968)

United States of America - The American Way of Love (1968)

1. Metaphor for an Older Man

After USA exploded and fell to the ground, Joe Byrd formed The Field Hippies. 

Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies - Kalyani (1969)

Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies - You Can’t Ever Come Down (1969)

Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies - Nightmare Train (1969)

Phil Ochs - Crucifixion (1967)

Country Joe MacDonald - Sexist Pig (1972) Joe MacDonald's "Paris Sessions" album features Dorothy Moskowitz on keyboards and vocals. Last I checked, there were videos on YouTube of this tour. 

Merry Clayton - Gimme Shelter (1970)

East of Idaho - Don’t You Want Me (1994)

Elton John - I’ve Been Loving You (1968) His debut single. Sank without a trace. 

Chicago - Got To Get You Into My Life (1975)

Harry Nilsson - She’s Just Laughing At Me (1968)

Jan and Dean (with Davy Jones) - Laurel and Hardy (1967)

Jimmy “Bo” Horne - Dance Across The Floor (1978)

The Spotnicks (with Jimmy Nicol) - Husky (1964)

Klaatu - Sub-Rosa Subway (1976)

Les Humphries Singers - MacArthur Park (1975)

Ray Stevens - Age of Aquarius (1969)

Steely Dan - Dallas (1972)

Adriano Celentano - Stand By Me (Italian) (1962)

Annie Philippe - Baby Love (French) (1965)

Bjork - Fool On The Hill (Iceland) (1977) 

Caterina Caselli - Paint It Black (Italian) (1967)

Chicago - Questions 67 and 68 (Japanese) (1970)

David Bowie - Helden/Heroes (German) (1977)

Donna Summer/German Cast of “Hair” - Age of Aquarius (German) (1968)

Streaplers - Warm California Sun (Swedish) (?)

Les Compagnons de la Chanson - Yellow Submarine (French) (1966)

Los Tres Tristes Tigres - Alone Again Naturally (Venezuela) (1972)

Streaplers - I Don’t Like Mondays (Swedish) (1979)

Beach Boys - In My Room (German) (1965)

Erik Einstein - Mellow Yellow (Hebrew) (1968)

Johnny Cash - Auf Deutsch 5 Titel (5 Titles in German) (1965)

Jürgen Drews - Let Your Love Flow (German) (1977)

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Sammy Davis Jr. - I Have But One Life To Live (1969)

Stuart Damon - Eros (1970)

Beach Boys - Matchpoint of Our Love (1978) 

Johnny Watson and Larry Williams - Two For The Price of One (1967)

The Free Design - There Is a Song (1971)

Russ Ballard - Since You Been Gone (1976)

The Teen Queens - You Good Boy, You Get Cookie (1958) Mack David, who wrote this infectious little tune, was the older brother of Hal David. 

Gary S. Paxton - The Big "A" = The Big "M" (1978)

The Insects - Let’s Bug The Beatles (1964)

Note the spelling of "Beetles". Were they afraid of a lawsuit? Was Roy Cohn their manager?

Bill Haley - Tongue-Tied Tony (1965) 

Frankie Valli - Life and Breath (1975) 

His only Motown album. Motown had seem better days, but as ever, FV and the FS were a quality act. 

Geronimo Black - Low Ridin’ Man/Siesta (1972) Ex-Mothers of Invention members.

Grand Funk Railroad (The Fabulous Pack) - Harlem Shuffle (1967) I posited this as a trivia question. No one got it right, which is to say, no one guessed. 

Osmonds - My Drum (1972)

Redbone - We Were All Wounded (At Wounded Knee) (1972) 

The British Invasion Retreats and Goes Home:

Dave Clark and Friends - Draggin’ The Line (1972)

Dave Clark and Friends - Rub It In (1972)

Dave Clark and Friends - Southern Man 91972)

Dave Clark Five - Julia (1970)

The Fourmost - Easy Squeezy (1969)

The Fourmost - Auntie Maggie’s Remedy (1966)

Freddie and the Dreamers - Brown and Porters (Meat Exporters) Lorry (1967)

Freddie and the Dreamers (Freddie Garrity and 10CC) - Susan’s Tuba (1971)

Gerry Marsden - Every Day (1968)

Gerry Marsden - Gilbert Green (written by The Gibb Brothers) (1967)

Gerry Marsden - Please Let Them Be (1967)

Gerry and the Pacemakers - The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine (1966)

PJ Proby - Hanging From Your Loving Tree (1969)

PJ Proby - Today I Killed a Man (1968)

Focus - Wingless (PJ Proby on vocals) (1977)

PJ Proby - Sign O The Times (yes, that one) (1989)

The Big Three - Let It Rock (1973)

Simtec & Wylie - Maggie May (1971)

The Shadows - Pinball Wizard/See Me Feel Me (1973)

The Four Seasons - American Crucifixion Resurrection (1969)

The Four Seasons - Wall Street Village Day (1969)

The Four Seasons - Genuine Imitation Life (1969)

Dick Kent - Hot Pants Plus (Song-Poem)

Lionel Hampton & The Inner Circle - We Need Nixon

Gene Marshall - Green Fingernails (Song-Poem)

John Fulker - She Knows How To Do The Doo Dee Do (Song-Poem)

Norm Burns & Singers - Wow We Wow (Song-Poem)

Sue Lloyd & Will O'Donnell - Ballad of Patty Hearst (Song-Poem)

Allen Scott - Bopping in Flip Flops (Song-Poem)

Gene Marshall - Shake Your Good Stuff (Song-Poem)

Dick Kent - Gretchen’s New Dish (Song-Poem)

GLS United - Rapper’s Deutsch (FM Jackson mix) (1980)

Malcolm Yelvington - (Got Me A) Trumpet (1957)

Doris - Beatmaker (1970)

Al Martino - Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1965)

Arlen Kearce - Sandy The Go Go Girl (?)

Jerry Lee Lewis - As Long As I Live (1961)

Burt Ward - Orange Colored Sky (1968)

Frankie Valli - The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore (1965)

Freddie Lennon - That’s My Life (1965)

George Wallace, Jr. - Cotton Fields (?)

Guy Drake - The Marching Hippies (1971)

? - I Lost My Girl To An Argentinian Cowboy (song poem)

Jan and Dean - You’re Blowing My Mind (1966 or 1968)

Joan Baez - Suzanne (1967)

The Beach Boys - God Only Knows (vocals only) (1966)

Electric Light Orchestra Related:

Electric Light Orchestra - Down In Old England Town (1972) Roy Wood, uncredited cellist. 

Balls - Fight For My Country (1971) 

From Discogs:

The band was formed in 1969.

Kelly Groucutt - Is It A Dream (1982)

Electric Light Orchestra - Nightrider (1975)

Bev Bevan - Let There Be Drums (1976)

Violinski - Cow/Caped Crusader (1979) Featuring Mike DeAlbuquerque, ex-ELO bassist, on guitar and vocals.

Wilson Gale and Co - I Wanna Stay (1979)

Electric Light Orchestra - Laredo Tornado (1974)

The Move - Do Ya (outtake of original version) (1971)

The Move - Message From The Country (1971)

The Nightriders (with Jeff Lynne) - It’s Only The Dog (1966)

Electric Light Orchestra - Eldorado (only the beginning part) (1974)