WMNF Tribute to the music of 1968

The idea for WMNF's next tribute show started with a friendly argument. "Last year, [station program director] Randy Wynne did a special on the Sixties Show making the case that 1967 was the greatest year ever in rock 'n' roll," says WMNF music director Lee "Flee" Courtney. "Then a week later the folks from the Sixties Show made the case that 1968 was the best year."

The disagreement gave rise to the next installment in WMNF's storied continuum of tribute shows — this one not honoring an artist as is most often the case, but a year.

Ten Bay area acts will perform 20-minute sets on New Year's Eve at Skipper's Smokehouse in a concert dubbed "Rewind: The WMNF Tribute to the Music and Songs of 1968." The music ranges from the power-pop-meets-Americana of Ted Lukas and the Misled (see below) to the hard-charging rockabilly of Midnight Bowler's League, from the trash-rock of Rancid Polecats (who will play a bubblegum show, including "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy") to the jam-funk of Christie Lenee.

The combined set list cuts a broad swath, hitting most of the touchstone acts: The Beatles ("Revolution," "Yer Blues"), the Rolling Stones ("Jumpin' Jack Flash," "Sympathy for the Devil"), Sly & the Family Stone ("Dance to the Music," "I Want to Take You Higher"), The Band ("Chest Fever," "The Weight"), Jimi Hendrix (Crosstown Traffic," "Voodoo Child") and others, as well as one-offs and surprises like Tom Jones' "Delilah," Desmond Dekker's "The Israelites," The American Breed's "Bend Me, Shape Me" and Small Faces' "Song of a Baker."

After Flee finalized the acts, he figured that with so much material available from one of the most tumultuous and musically rich years in American history, he wouldn't have to worry about bands selecting the same tunes. "I didn't want any repeats," Flee says. "There's too much to choose from. It's first-come-first-serve in terms of bands choosing songs, and I didn't think I'd have to really monitor it. But the first two bands that sent me set lists each had the same song on it: The Byrds' "Hickory Wind."

Flee chuckles, and adds, "I had to go back and check the times on the e-mails. Crabgrass Cowboys beat out Ted Lukas by like an hour and a half."

Flee has spearheaded 14 or so WMNF tribute shows, which are some of the station's best-attended events. The musicians generally play gratis (although because the 1968 concert is on New Year's Eve they are getting paid).

"A lot of people in bands don't make a lot of money, so when we have a pledge drive they don't have much to give," Flee says. "This way, they get to use their talent to contribute to the radio station."

Further, the tributes help galvanize the relationship between WMNF and the local music community. Flee says it would be too unwieldy to do an open call for acts to perform on tribute shows, so he collects opinions from other DJs and industry insiders, and uses his own eyes, ears and contacts to cobble together lineups that are stylistically diverse and combine old hands with up-and-comers. The 1968 bash features two first-timers: Lush Progress and Midnight Bowlers League.

"Most of the bands really like to do these shows, so I have a rule that if you did the last one you can't do the next one," Flee says. "And I'm constantly on the lookout for new acts. It keeps me from getting lazy, just picking up the phone and calling bands I like and work well with.

"But ultimately, when it comes to choosing the bands, I'm more conscious of style than politics," Flee continues. "I always try to get a good variety. If I'm doing Johnny Cash, for instance, I don't want all country bands. It gets boring. I want to hear how a funk band or punk band will do Johnny Cash. Usually what happens is half the bands do pretty straight renditions of the songs, and half give their own spin, which are always my favorites. They're not always the crowd favorites, though. A lot of people in the crowd really respond to the replicated versions."

It's pretty much reached the point where a WMNF tribute show will be a slam-dunk in terms of attendance and entertainment. That said, "Themes [like 1968] are a little tougher than doing a band," Flee says. "They're a little harder for the audience to get their arms around. They might think, 'I love Jimi Hendrix or the Rolling Stones, but 1968?'

There's a little bit of concern, but it's such a great list of songs. Whoever goes is going to have a great time."

One band's take on 1968

Although he was born in 1970, Ted Lukas had no problem picking out four songs from 1968 to play at WMNF's New Year's Eve fundraiser. "I was always into '60s music," he says. "My dad was a musician and there were always guitars around. I was an only child — my friends were records. I think the first riff I learned on guitar was [Cream's] "Sunshine of Your Love."

Lukas, who has played in a variety of bands ranging in style from pure power-pop to rugged Americana, adroitly combined the two in his latest album, Misled, one of the best CDs by a locally based artist released in '08. He's a veteran of "eight or nine" WMNF tribute shows. He'll perform at this one with his band The Misled. Here's a look at his set list, with commentary from Lukas about the whys and hows of the tunes.

The Beatles, "Revolution": "There had to be a Beatles tune and a Stones tune; they're a big part of my makeup. I picked "Revolution" because for me it's stood the test of time, both musically and with its political agenda. I love how nasty it is. If you listen to the original recording, the fuzz tone they use is before its time. You don't think of the Beatles as being heavy, but listen to the guitar and it's way heavier than what Cream was doing. We moved the key from B-flat to A, and we're going to play it pretty close to the original."

The Rolling Stones, "Jumpin' Jack Flash": "It's not one of my favorite Stones tunes, but I like it a lot and it's a good one to get people up and rockin'. We're gonna country it up a bit, but it'll still be rockin'. I'm gonna play mandolin and we're having Doc Lovett from the Mojo Gurus play second guitar. We're gonna give it kind of a Steve Earle treatment. We also changed the key from B-flat to A.

The Band, "The Weight": "The Band is one of my favorite groups ever, and we could've picked pretty much anything from Big Pink. We're gonna stay faithful to the original. We don't have a keyboardist but the arrangement will be the same as the Big Pink version.

We have three singers. I'm gonna sing the Levon [Helm] verses. [Guitarist] Sonny John Sundstrom will sing the third verse, patterned after the one Pops Staples sang in The Last Waltz. [Drummer] Sean Doyle will do the Rick Danko verse, the "Crazy Chester" verse, and Sean and I will harmonize on the last verse. The ["take the load right off me"] harmony part, we did it twice and we had it. The song's harmonies are not tight, so that'll work just fine for us."

The Byrds, "One Hundred Years From Now": "We definitely wanted to play a Gram Parsons song; he's one of my favorite singer/songwriters ever. The Crabgrass Cowboys beat us to "Hickory Wind," so we took this one. This song was on Sweethearts of the Rodeo, which is pretty much a straight country album. We decided to do it more revved-up, so we chose a version that Wilco did on the Gram Parsons tribute album, Return of the Grievous Angel. I liked the way they rocked it up — with those Chuck Berry-ish riffs."

Snider's take on 1968

If I could force 10 songs into the WMNF's "Rewind: The WMNF Tribute to the Music and Songs of 1968," these would be the ones. This isn't just a list of my favorites from that year, but rather a group of numbers that I think would sound great performed onstage at Skipper's by Bay area bands. One interesting omission: I just figured an obligatory Beatles song would make my list, but nothing from the White Album or their singles edged out the selections below.

The Band, "The Weight"

The Chambers Brothers, "Time Has Come Today"

Aretha Franklin, "Since You've Been Gone (Sweet Sweet Baby)"

Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing"

Jimi Hendrix, "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)"

Laura Nyro, "Stoned Soul Picnic"

The Rascals, "People Got to Be Free"

The Rolling Stones, "Street Fighting Man"

Sly & the Family Stone, "M'Lady"

Stevie Wonder, "For Once in My Life"

This article appears in Dec 31, 2008 – Jan 6, 2009.