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I think we have found all the originals of songs covered by Dead Moon. We put a lot of links on this page, too; should you have more information, better links or anything to add here: please mail us!
It's A Long Way To The Top: The new album "Destination X" has version of this AC/DC song. Its full title is "It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock'n'Roll)" and it's on AC/DCs first album, "TNT" (as its title was in Australia), released worldwide under the title "High Voltage". (Record company and catalog number - later, OK?)
From here we go chronologically:
Parchment Farm: In fact, the original version is called "Parchman Farm" and was written by delta bluesman Mose Allison. Parchman Prison Farm was or rather IS a Mississippi prison...
Hey Joe: best known in
Jimi Hendrix' version,
and covered in a zillion ways. The way Dead Moon recorded it is based on the '66
version of LA based garage band The Leaves. Here’s the whole story of the Leaves version of “Hey Joe”, uncovered for the Dead Moon Digital Zone by Koen Goossens from Lebbeke in Belgium:
The Leaves first released the 7” single “Hey Joe, Where You Gonna Go” b/w “Be With You” in 1965 as a promo (Mira 207), produced by Nick Venet (known for his work with the Beach Boys). A re-recorded, shorter version produced by Norm Ratner was released with a different B-side in 1966; “Hey Joe, Where You Gonna Go” b/w “Girl From The East” (Mira 222). Both versions have Bill Rinehart as lead guitarist, and the guitar parts have no fuzz. Third time’s the charm: with the title brought back to the first two words, they record yet another version (again with producer Norm Ratner) that has the now well-known, way out signature bass line and the fuzz-guitar by Bobby Arlin, the new lead guitarist. It is this 7” (strangely enough also with catalog no. Mira 222!) “Hey Joe” b/w “Funny Little World” that has become the big hit record! All these versions can be found on the CD “The Leaves Are Happening”, released in 2000 by Sundazed (SC 11058).
(Thanks Koen!)
What Koen did not mention is this: Arthur Lee claims that he played Hey Joe with his band Love in that up-tempo way, bass-line and all, long before The Leaves did. He says that when The Leaves wanted to play the song they asked Lee for the lyrics, and he misled them and gave them a different version than the original words, so the original lyrics are the ones found on the Love recording. Those were the days.
Although "Hey Joe" is
considered "public domain" now, copyright-wise, the compositary
credits should most probably go to folk singer William (Bobby) Roberts, although
the Leaves credit the song to Chester Powers (an alias of Dino Valenti of the
Quicksilver Messenger Service). You can also find one the Leaves' versions on the
excellent compilation album "Nuggets: Original Artyfacts of the First
Psychedelic Era, 1965 -1968", Elektra Records 7E-2006 (re-released by Sire
Records, SASH 3716-2), not to be confused with the 'Nuggets'-releases of Rhino
Records... though they ain't bad either...
Can't Help Falling In Love: yep, that's Elvis - but this of course wasn't actually written by The King. Credits go to Weiss/Peretti/Creatore on the Dead Moon sleeve, but then... my source* says it was originally the French song "Plaisir d'Amour", composed in 1785 by Jean Pierre Claris de Florian and Jean Paul Egide Schwarzendorf (alias Martini il Tedesco), who initially named it "La Romance du Chevrier". Yes, I'm very serious. (Check out the Nick Drake compilation LP/SACD "A Treasury", where "Plaisir d'Amour" appears as a short unlisted bonus track... it's a hybrid SACD however you can't play the bonus track on a regular CD player! Stick to vinyl is what I say...)
Milk Cow Blues: also "public domain" (and covered by countless artists) but this time it's a "traditional" of which the original composer is impossible to trace. The first recording however was by Kokomo Arnold (1934!), and in 1968 it was recorded by the Chocolate Watch Band.
Time Has Come Today: originally by The Chambers Brothers. Koen Goossens told me all about this one, it's available on the following Chambers Brothers albums (re-releases included): "The Time Has Come" (Columbia CL 2722) Mono LP, USA 1968(*); "The Time Has Come" (Columbia CS 9522) Stereo LP, USA 1968(*); "The Time Has Come" (Direction 8-63407) LP, UK 1968(*); "The Chambers Brothers' Greatest Hits" (Columbia C 30871) LP, USA 1971; "The Time Has Come/A New Time A New Day" (Columbia SG-33641) 2LP, USA 1975(*); "The Time Has Come" (Columbia CK 9522) CD, USA 1988(*); "Greatest Hits" (Columbia CK 30871) CD, USA 1990; "Time Has Come - The Best Of The Chambers Brothers" (Columbia/Legacy CK 65036) CD, USA 1996; you can also find it on the compilations "Nuggets # 9 - Acid Rock" (Rhino RNLP 70033) LP, USA 1986; "Even More Nuggets" (Rhino R2 75754) CD, USA 1989; and "Psychedelic Years" (Sequel NXT CD 221) 3CD-BOX, UK 1992. That not enough details for you? Hey, Koen gave me some more, like the fact that the albums marked (*) feature a version that's longer than the original 7" version from 1966 ("Time Has Come Today"/"Dinah", Columbia 4-43816) and that it was the re-released 7" version from 1967 with a different flipside ("Time Has Come Today"/"People Get Ready", Columbia 4-44414) that reached the 11th position in the US charts in October of 1986. (This guy is also working on a Lyres website that no doubt will shock the world. I'll keep you all updated. Thanks Koen!)
Signed D.C.: Arthur Lee wrote this chilling junkie blues and recorded it at least twice with his legendary sixties psychedelic rock band, Love. The first version can be found on the album "Love", Elektra EKL/EKS (7)4001; a blistering re-recording appeared on the double album "Out There".
Communication Breakdown: that's a Led Zeppelin tune!
Folsom Prison: also named "Folsom Prison Blues", it's
a song by The Man In Black - the late Johnny Cash.
Play With Fire: the credits on the Dead Moon album correctly give "Nanker Phelge" (or, well, it should be "Nanker/Phelge" if you want to be really precise). Hey, you say, I thought it was a Rolling Stones song? That's right - "Nanker/Phelge" was an alias used for songs written by the Stones as a band plus producer Andrew Loog Oldham.
Times Are A Changing: Bob Dylan (bonus points for those of you who said "Robert Zimmerman").
Well now... as we're trying to be complete: "Poverty Shack"
(Deep Soul Cole) was written by Sugar & Spice, "Little Girl" (The
Weeds) is a Them tune (Van Morrison!), The Rats' "Wanna Be Your Man"
is indeed a Lennon/McCartney composition, and "Coming On Strong"
(recorded by Toody & The Western Front) is a song written by David Wilkins,
made famous by Brenda Lee.
Furthermore, the Dead Moon live set list has seen such cover songs as "Too Many People"
(The Leaves) - hang on, yet another bunch of facts Koen gave me about the original: “Too Many People” b/w “Love Minus Zero” (Mira 202, 1965) and “Too Many People” b/w “Girl From The East” (Mira 227, 1966) have identical A-sides (with guitarist Bill Rinehart); another, substantially longer version (with Bobby Arlin on guitar) can be found both on the LP “Hey Joe” (Mira LP 3005, 1966) and the recently released CD “The Leaves Are Happening” (Sundazed SC 11058)...! OK where were we? Oh yeah: "Out Of Time" (Rolling Stones), "Gloria"
(Them), "For What It's Worth" (Buffalo Springfield, from their first, self-titled LP, Atlantic, 1967), "Waiting For
My Man" (Velvet Underground), and more recently "I'm Free"
(Rolling Stones) and "Ring Of Fire" (Johnny Cash). Every now and then
they do Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man", and if you want to get
into sordid details... on the CD-ROM version of "Hard Wired In Ljubljana",
there is an a-capella version of The Beatles' "Michelle" by Toody (a
duet with Kees Visser, a die-hard from Haarlem, videoed in a dressing room
somewhere), and Andrew sings "Rawhide" with Toody. You know... the
Tiomkin/Washington composition recorded by Frankie Laine in 1958 as theme tune
for the TV-series of the same name. Okay, this is getting ridiculous.
*After writing this list, some of the facts above were verified in the book "The Originals" by Arnold Rypens (and at some points corrected and elaborated). For those of you who read Dutch: buy that book, it's an incredible source of information! (ISBN 902610950 4)
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