Back to the mean stuff this week: a quartet of versions of "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone"! Step one: we can have lots of fun with Paul Revere & the Raiders' 1966 original (2:13) Grave-digger riffs galore, FUZZ bass, crucial organ, snappy snare sounds, and vocals by the Human Exclamation Mark! - Mark Lindsay - make this one a winner. There's so much to do with Step 2 - another version from '66 by The Liverpool Five (49:12). The guitar produces volume swells and squalls, a "Green Onions" riff emerges out of the sonic stew - and riffs, reverb, and R&B a-plenty. It's a little bit you and a little bit me with Step 3 - The Monkees and their well-known hit version from 1967 (1:12:56). No fuzz? Dolenz's dulcet tones? This one gets its mean genes from some Boyce-terous backing vocals by the song's co-writer, Tommy Boyce. And one more with Step 4 - another '66er from British freakbeat merchants The Flies (1:41:18). This one's slooooooow, heavy, and loud - with shades of "Purple Haze"?!?! Check out the weird jazz-scat section, and the snaky sibliance from the singer. You'll be walkin' round like you're front page news!!
