Category Archives: Mainstream

The Bushmen, War Babies and Euphoria

Euphoria Capitol LP A Gift From Euphoria

Much has been written about Euphoria’s legendary album A Gift from Euphoria. This article focuses instead on the various releases the band members did prior to the LP and the connections to other bands I’ve covered on this site.

Euphoria had its start as a Cleveland band with David Potter and Wesley Watt called the Bushmen. Although it was thought that the Bushmen was a separate group from Wesley Watt’s projects prior to Euphoria, David Potter’s bio states:

After playing drums at the club [the Clinton Bar in Cleveland, OH] for three months, Wesley Watt, a guitar player came in looking for a drummer for a group he wanted to put together, The Bushman [sic]. When he heard David he knew he was the one. David turned sixteen in January and in May, David, Wesley, Paul Armstrong, and Carl Johnson left for Los Angeles to make their mark. On arriving in L.A. they immediately became the house band for the club, Guys and Dolls.

After only eight weeks they signed a contract with Colpix records, also signing with Buck Ram, the manager of the Platters. Their first single was “Baby” with “What I Have I’ll Give to You” on the flip side.

The Bushmen Dimension 45 What I Have I'll Give to YouThe Bushmen had one release “Baby” / “What I Have I’ll Give to You” on Dimension 1049 in June of ’65. Dimension Records was part of the Columbia Pictures / Colpix company at this time.

Bill Lincoln had relocated from Seattle to Los Angeles. He must have been in the group at this point as he is the composer of “What I Have I’ll Give to You”.

Bill Lincoln and Mike Dood are credited with writing “Walk on the Surf Side” by the Nova-Tones, released on Rosco 417 circa 1963, and backed with “Lost Love”. I’m not positive it’s the same Bill Lincoln, but it seems likely as the time and place are right. I haven’t heard either song, so if you have the 45 or sound files, please contact me.

Teenage Rebellion aka Mondo TeenoPoster

Potter’s bio continues:

The Bushman [sic] were getting a lot of notoriety and attention from all over, including film producer David L. Wolper. He was looking for bands for a documentary about to start filming, Teenage Revolution. They approached Buck Ram about The Bushman being the premiere band for the documentary. Wolper wanted to show what bands went through while traveling around the country from gig to gig. (Along with The Bushman being were about four other bands, one being The Lovin’ Spoonful.) About a month later Buck set up a live gig in Lancaster CA where they filmed their part of Teenage Revolution.

A portion of Mondo Teeno aka The Teenage Revolution is online. I hear music that may be the Bushmen, but haven’t seen any footage of the band.

War-Babies Highland 45 Jeanie's PubIn addition to the Bushmen single, Watt and Lincoln recorded their original songs as the War-Babies “Jeanie’s Pub” / “Love Is Love” (Highland 4000, August 1965).

The War-Babies recorded another two songs, “Now It’s Over” / “So Little Time” but these came out under the name The Word on Brent 704.

Although I’ve read that the Bushmen came after the War-Babies and Word singles, release dates suggest the Bushmen single came first.

The Word Brent 45 So Little TimePotter’s bio continues:

After filming the documentary, David, Wesley, and Bill Lincoln wanted to do their own thing. Now seasoned professionals and highly respected musicians they wanted to play and record their own music. With the chance so did their name, to Euphoria. The newly named group spent all their time playing, touring, and recording material that would lead to two of the groups albums. During a successful tour in Texas, their single. “Baby”, released when they were The Bushman [sic], went to #7 on the charts, staying there for seven weeks.

The newly-named Euphoria added Pat Connolly of the Surfaris on bass by the time they toured Texas in 1966. Bill Lincoln left the group when he married and moved to England, though he would rejoin Wesley Watt within a year or two for Euphoria’s 1969 album on Capitol. Connolly also left so Watts brought in James Harrell on guitar and Peter Black on bass, both of the legendary Houston group the Misfits. I believe David Potter was still playing drums with the group at this point, but it may have been Steve Webb of the Misfits.

This group recorded some tracks at Andrus Productions in Houston, including “Pick It Up”, “In Time”, “Walking The Dog” and “Oh Dear, You Look Like a Dog”, none of which surfaced until Texas Archive Recordings released the LP Houston Hallucinations in 1982. The band had other unreleased Texas recordings which await reissue, including “People You and Me” which has some similarity to Da Capo era Love.

Euphoria Mainstream 45 No Me Tomorrow

Back in L.A., Bob Shad of Brent & Mainstream Records brought the group into United Studios in Hollywood to record four songs in one session. Shad issued two of these (with vocals re-recorded at additional sessions), “Hungry Women” and “No Me Tomorrow” on Mainstream 655, but two originals by James Harrell, “I Realize” and “It Could Do Us No Wrong” were left unreleased and eventually lost. The single would reappear on the Mainstream compilation LP With Love – A Pot of Flowers in 1967.

Despite a good push from Bob Shad, the single didn’t make much of an impact and the group broke up. James Harrell and Pete Black went back to Texas and rejoined the Misfits, changing the name to the Lost and Found.

Euphoria Mainstream 45 Hungry WomenPotter and Watt joined Lee Michaels band where they played on Michaels’ album Carnival of Life with Gary Davis and John Keski.

Potter joined the East Side Kids in time to play on their album The Tiger and the Lamb, which featured one of his original songs as well as two by Wesley Watt, “Heavy Love” and “Can’t Feel Love”.

Bill Lincoln had returned by this time. He and Watt worked for almost two years on what would become their album A Gift from Euphoria on Capitol in 1969, produced by Nick Venet. According to his bio, Potter also played on the album. Guitarist Doug Delain is also listed in credits for the LP.

After recording the East Side Kids The Tiger and the Lamb album, Potter moved to Houston and joined with Endle St. Cloud (Alan Mellinger) for his album on International Artists, which also included Pete Black and James Harrell of the Lost & Found. They moved back to LA to for the Potter St. Cloud LP on Mediarts in 1971.

David Potter passed away in 2011, but there was a detailed biography about him at his website, davidpottermusician.com (now defunct but viewable on the Internet Archive).

Watt and Lincoln co-produced and played on Bernie Schwartz’s solo album The Wheel, released on MGM in late 1969, which features a version of their song “Sunshine Woman” that had been on Euphoria’s Capitol LP.

Potter, Watt and Lincoln all continued in music into the early ’70s. For example, Potter and Watt played on Daniel Moore’s 1971 ABC album, and Watt played guitar on Dory Previn’s 1971 Mediarts album Mythical Kings and Iguanas.

Hamilton Wesley Watt, Jr. passed away on February 20, 2015 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Bill Lincoln recorded an album with his wife Lynda and friends as Addie Pray. Late for the Dance went unreleased for years but is now available on www.cdbaby.com/cd/addiepray.

Sources include Alec Palao’s liner notes to the Big Beat CD release of With Love – A Pot of Flowers.

Songs about Vietnam and the Draft

Following the Beatles appearance on Ed Sullivan in February of ’64 there was an explosion of bands across the U.S. The next few years would see thousands of singles released by individual bands, professional and amateur, which we now consider to have the ‘garage’ sound.

These prime years for teen bands closely coincide with the beginning of America’s war in Vietnam. In August of ’64, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave President Johnson authority to use military force in Vietnam. The Resolution responded to attacks on U.S. ships stationed near North Vietnam, but these supposed attacks are now known to be bogus. (Check the Gulf of Tonkin Incident entry in Wikipedia to read how the truth was distorted to justify military action.)

In March of 1965 Operation Rolling Thunder began the bombing campaigns on North Vietnam. Initially only a few thousand troops were stationed in Vietnam to support the bombers, but this number grew to 200,000 by the end of ‘65. Troop levels increased to 500,000 in 1967. The Tet Offensive occurred in January of 1968, marking a turning point in the war and U.S. public opinion.

As teenaged boys started bands in the wake of the Beatles, they were facing the possibility of being drafted within the next few years. Most had more immediate concerns – girls, school, cars, and the number of songs about Vietnam or the draft are a tiny minority of all teen beat songs from the period. It was easier to write lyrics that imitated the relationship-oriented pop songs of the era than to sing about political opinions and personal fears.

For those that did, their lyrics display their ethical dilemmas – feeling a duty to serve but ambivalent about whether the war is right; being afraid of dying; not wanting to be told what to do either by the government, society or the anti-war front. These lyrics range from idealistic to cynical. Early on there were very dogmatic patriot songs, but as the draft widened and sentiment turned against the war the imagery became more violent and the jingoism subsided.

Stylistically they had few models to draw from in 1965, as most major U.S. and British Invasion acts weren’t writing political lyrics yet. Some groups would draw from the folk styles of Bob Dylan and Barry McGuire. Others could look to a long tradition in country and pop of making novelty adaptions of hit songs. An example of this would be the Beach Bums’ “The Ballad of the Yellow Beret”, or the Midnight Sons rewrite of “Summertime Blues” to show chagrin at the draft.

At least as far back as the Civil War there had been an industry of professional songwriting and production teams to craft songs about war for the public. (See the Civil War Preservation Trust’s article Patriotic Songs of the War to read about the professional origins of the most-well known songs of the era.)

The Vietnam War would be a different case, as by 1965 young bands were the lifeblood of the music industry. For the first time in modern history, the generation actually serving in the war became the primary voice of the conflict.

I: Shutup the Folksingers

In 1965 Bob Dylan was just starting to make inroads on pop radio with “Like a Rolling Stone”. Earlier protest songs like “Masters of War” were rarely heard on commercial radio but their influence was an intellectual force behind the anti-war movement: a voice that had to be answered by those in favor of the war.

Teenagers in bands may have been unaware of the anti-war songs of Bob Dylan or Phil Ochs in 1965, but they certainly couldn’t miss Barry McGuire’s #1 single “Eve of Destruction” on the radio during that summer and fall. This anti-war, pro-civil rights, anti-nuclear song provoked answer songs and parodies, most not sympathetic to McGuire’s sentiments.

There was plenty in “Eve of Destruction” to upset the mainstream: comparing America’s failure on civil rights to a communist totalitarian state (“Think of all the hate there is in Red China / Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama”) and equating anti-Christian values to hypocritical religiousness (“Hate your next-door neighbor, but don’t forget to say grace”) are but two examples!

There’s a sting of truth to lines like these which would put people on the defensive. Most grating of all was the singer’s repeated dissatisfaction with the state of affairs in the country. Love it or leave it pal!

An early rebuke to McGuire is “The Prophet” from 1965. One thing that’s striking is the sheer belligerence of the singer as he rants!

There’s a prophet of doom, spreading his gloom
Shouting misery and hate.
Saying this world is a tomb, yeah and there ain’t no room
For dreams ’cause it’s too late.
He calls you his friend, says it’s the end
Destruction is near, but wait …

Hey Prophet, take a look around,
Yeah Prophet, there’s still hope around / … /

Hey Prophet
It’s awful easy for you to talk about it …
Tell me something what are you doin’ about it?
Yeah Prophet, WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT IT?! / … /

There’s guys just like me who like what they see,
And they want to be free because they like it that way
They don’t care what you say
They’ll fight to keep it that way too!

Fight for their right to be free … of conscience!

Sure there’s things to be found in this land that’s free that don’t seem right to me
But there’s hope in the air because there’s people who care,
There not filled with despair like you!

This is the classic turnaround – the one exposing the problems is accused of doing nothing positive to help the situation, of being cynical and emphasizing the negative. The patriotic citizen has ‘hope’ and faith that things are getting better.

A straightfoward inversion of Barry McGuire’s song is the Jayhawkers’ “Dawn of Instruction”. The attitude of the lyrics is similar to The Prophet, with lines like “Step aside, Mister Doom Peddler” and “[we’re] not old enough to vote, but ain’t young enough for runnin'”.

“Eve of Destruction” was an easy target for some of its over-the-top lyrics (“even the Jordan River has bodies floatin’” or “my blood’s so mad feels like coagulatin’”), and the Jayhawkers made the most of these exaggerations.

Billy Carr’s “What’s Come Over This World” saw release on Colpix, and is obviously a professional songwriting and studio effort. Lyrically it is a flag-waving message, with plenty of disdain for the dissenting elements of the younger generation. The production co-opts more than a little of Dylan’s style, and not in parody either, a sure sign that the old guard was desperate to keep relevant. Dylan-esque harmonica shows up on so many of these answer songs, whether mocking him or in sincere imitation, that his influence must have been inescapable.

What’s become of this nation and the songs that they sing?
Everybody’s protesting, what’s it all gonna bring?
We sang the Star Spangled Banner, forever in peace may it wave,
And now some rock ‘n roll singer is knocking the Home of the Brave

What’s come over this world?
I’ve thought it over and I can’t get over
What’s come over this world?

There’s an army of cowards, see them marching in line
While the country’s in danger, they just carry a sign
Look at them burning their draft cards and refusing to fight
While they talk about freedom, they’re dimming liberty’s light

My brother fought in Korea, my daddy in World War II
Now there’s a war in Viet-nam and there’s a job we must do
What can you do for your country, his words were written in blood
Those who forgot what he died for, are dragging the flag through the mud.

More nuanced (and much better music) is “So the Prophets Say”, released in April 1965 by a group in their late teens the Centurys of Lebanon, Pennsylvania. The echo engulfing the tom-tom drums, dense guitars and eerie organ creates a doom-laden atmosphere, but lyrically the song repeats anti-communist propaganda. More than anything, though, it stresses individual choice against conformity. “So the Prophets Say” was written by lead guitarist Billy Beard, who passed away this past July 31, 2008.

They’ll tell you that they’re wise, and that they’ll analyze your situation.
They can tell you what’s gonna come and how certain things will be done,
They’re your salvation.

Will the world end today, like it did yesterday, or will we have to wait till tomorrow?
will tell you when it comes, you’ll hear those rocking drums,
you’ll just repent, you know your sorrow

These men of wealth? and men so poor?
These prophets of peace and prophets of war – are they getting you?

Then they tell you to make a big sound about getting out of Vietnam,
You know you’ve got a right to your convictions!
But will they warn you of a coming day, when your placards might be thrown away, and they’ll say “now you’ve got a few restrictions.”

You may not like it if they hand you a gun, before you turn 21 and say “now you’ve got to be a man!”
But when your freedom’s bells stop ringing, and a Red slave song you’re singing,
You’ll wish you had a gun in your hand!

These men so good and men so bad
These prophets so sane and prophets so mad – they get you!

Why don’t you let it be known, you’ve got a mind of your own,
And you can tell right from wrong from day to day,
And that you l… because they know you care,
And so you’ll beware of what the prophets say!

In early 1966 Sgt. Barry Sadler had a #1 hit with that paen to the american soldier, “Ballad of the Green Beret.” The Beach Bums (actually Bob Seger singing when he was with Doug Brown and the Omens) adapted it for their “protest against protesters”, “The Ballad of the Yellow Beret.” It’s not really a parody of the Sadler song as a straight up mocking of draft-dodgers.

This is a protest against protesters:

Fearless cowards of the U.S.A.
Bravely here at home they stay
They watch their friends get shipped away
The draft dodgers of the Yellow Beret

Yellow streaks up and down their spines
Men who gladly stay behind
They won’t fight for the U.S.A.
They fought hard for the yellow beret

Men who faint at the sight of blood
Their high heeled boots weren’t meant for mud
The draft board will hear their sob stories today
Only the best the yellow beret

Back at home a young wife waits
Her yellow beret has met his fate
He’s been drafted for marching in a protest
Leaving her his last request

Put a yellow streak down my sons back
Make sure that he never ever fights back
At his physical have him say he’s gay
Have him win the yellow beret.

Next installment: Democracy and the Draft

Thank you to Bernard Watts (Scratuglia) and to Pete Sofinski for the label scan. Thanks also to portofranco and Justin for the Billy Carr scan.