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Taylor said the song was about several incidents during his early recording career. The second line "Suzanne the plans they made put an end to you" refers to Suzanne Schnerr, a childhood friend of his who committed suicide while he was in London, England, recording his first album. In that same account, Taylor said he had been in a deep depression after the failure of his new band The Flying Machine to coalesce (the lyric "Sweet dreams and Flying Machines in pieces on the ground"; the reference is to the name of the band rather than a fatal plane crash, as was long rumored).

In 2005 Taylor explained that the song was written in three parts:

The first part was about Taylor's friend Suzanne, who died while Taylor was in London working on his first album after being signed to Apple Records. Friends at home, concerned that it might distract Taylor from his big break, kept the tragic news from him and he found out six months later.

The second part details Taylor's struggle to overcome drug addiction and depression.

The third part deals with coming to grips with fame and fortune, looking back at the road that got him there. It includes a reference to James Taylor and The Flying Machine, a band he briefly worked with before his big break with Paul McCartney, Peter Asher, and Apple Records.

Carole King played piano on the song.

This is from the Remember That Night performances of his On An Island tour at the Royal Albert Hall. These were the last live performances of Richard Wright (RIP).

This is from the Remember That Night concerts at the Royal Albert Hall of his On An Island tour. These were the last concerts Richard Wright (RIP) played.

The short story, recited by a deadpan John Cale, was written by Lou Reed as a writing project during his college days.

The narrative concerns Waldo Jeffers, a lovesick youth, who has engaged in a distressing long-distance relationship with his college girlfriend Marsha Bronson. After their school terms end, Waldo returns to his hometown of Locust, Pennsylvania. He becomes increasingly paranoid over the course of two months, worried that Marsha might not stay faithful to him as promised. More than anything, he fears constantly that she will engage in sexual promiscuity. Lacking the requisite money to visit her in Wisconsin, he concocts a plan to mail himself to her in a large cardboard box, expecting it will be a welcome surprise to Marsha. He ships himself on Friday.

The following Monday, Marsha is having a discussion with her friend Sheila Klein about Bill, a man that Marsha slept with the previous night. When the package arrives at the door, the two struggle to open the box while Waldo waits excitedly inside. He has a bittersweet result.

Alvin Lee and Ten Years After evolved through several personnel and name changes: Ivan Jay and the Jaycats, Blues Trip, Blues Yard. They finally settled on Ten Years After – in honour of Elvis Presley, one of Lee's idols (this was ten years after Presley's successful year 1956). From a guitarist's perspective, the 1970 Woodstock film, which documents the highs and lows of the August 1969 Woodstock Festival, has several highlights. There's Jimi Hendrix's immortal take on "The Star-Spangled Banner," a mesmerizing performance by newcomers Santana, Richie Havens' thumb-fretting madness and Pete Townshend's Gibson SG acrobatics with the Who. But for a full-on blues-rocking experience, there's no beating Ten Years After's adrenaline-fueled reading of "I'm Going Home." The performance, an intense nod to vintage blues and Fifties rock and roll, featured the lightning-fast fretwork of Ten Years After frontman Alvin Lee.

Alvin Lee: "Seriously, though, I never really tried to play fast. It kind of developed from the adrenalin rush of the hundreds of gigs I did long before Woodstock. They called me "Captain Speedfingers" and such, but I didn't take it seriously. There were many guitarists faster than me—Django Reinhardt, Barney Kessel, John McLaughlin and Joe Pass to name a few. The solo in the movie sounds pretty rough to me these days, but it had the energy, and that was what Ten Years After were all about at the time. However, I often wonder what would have happened if they had used “I Can't Keep From Crying, Sometimes” in the movie instead of "I’m Going Home.""

"Strangely enough, I wasn't into fast guitarists. I preferred Peter Green’s subtle touch. I saw him with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers at the Marquee Club in London and was very impressed. He was the only guitarist I've ever seen to turn the volume control on his guitar down during a solo."

As the song was originally used as a backing track for Wilson to use later, it was recorded on July 6, 1967, at Columbia's studios in Chicago. Produced by Carl Davis, the session, arranged by Sonny Sanders, featured bassist James Jamerson, drummer Richard "Pistol" Allen, guitarist Robert White, and keyboardist Johnny Griffith; these four musicians were all members of the Motown Records house band The Funk Brothers who often moonlighted on sessions for Davis to augment the wages paid by Motown.

According to Carl Davis, the Funk Brothers "used to come over on the weekends from Detroit. They'd load up in the van and come over to Chicago, and I would pay 'em double scale, and I'd pay 'em in cash." Similarly two of Motown's house session singers The Andantes, Jackie Hicks and Marlene Barrow, along with Pat Lewis (who was filling in for Andante Louvain Demps), performed on the session for "Higher and Higher". The song was originally written by Chess Records' in-house writers and producers, Carl Smith and Raynard Miner, and initially recorded by The Dells for the label but not released. Another writer, Gary Jackson made some changes to the song and pitched it to Davis at Brunswick. When the singer recorded his vocal track, Davis recalls, Wilson originally sang the song "like a soul ballad. I said that's totally wrong. You have to jump and go with the percussion... If he didn't want to sing it that way, I would put my voice on the record and sell millions." After hearing Davis's advice, Wilson cut the lead vocal for "Higher and Higher" in a single take.

The Doobie Brothers version of the song was released in 1972. The original version by Arthur Reid Reynolds was in 1966 with a cover by [The Byrds](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpKAQacDkFo) in 1969.

It's early, I need another cup of coffee.

"Don't Bring Me Down" was composed by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. Rolling Stone would later write that "Don't Bring Me Down" represented one side of the Goffin-King "boy-girl, loneliness-togetherness" duality.

Burdon: I didn't realize that it was a Goffin, King song until I was in a doctor's office in Beverly Hills and Ms. King came in and sat next to me. I didn't know it was her, I was just reading a magazine and she turned to me and said, "You know, I hated what you did to my song." I didn't know what to say, so all I said was, "Well, sorry." and then as she got up to go into the doctor's office, she turned around and said, "But I got used to it."

"Don't Bring Me Down" was the third of The Animals' epic personalisations of Brill Building material, following the 1965 hits "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" and "It's My Life". According to one account, all three came out of one call in 1965 that The Animals' then-producer Mickie Most made for songs.

The Animals had always had a somewhat contentious relationship with such songs, knowing they gave them hits but preferring the more straightforward R&B numbers they used for album tracks. Moreover, now they were performing a Goffin and King selection; although the couple was already legendary for their pop songwriting prowess, Animals lead singer Eric Burdon had previously seemingly mocked Goffin-King's "Take Good Care of My Baby" in The Animals' 1964 stream-of-consciousness rock history "Story of Bo Diddley". Furthermore, they were now using Tom Wilson as a producer, who promised them more artistic freedom than they had had under Mickie Most.

The Animals' arrangement is led by a pulsating organ riff from Dave Rowberry, which is then set against a prominent bass guitar line from Chas Chandler. Hilton Valentine decorates the song with fuzz guitar chords.

[Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers live version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRp7cQqjVIU)

Originally written as a folk song, arranger Charles Calello sped it up and at Valli's suggestion added a galloping rhythm guitar borrowed from Kai Windings version of "More". Drummer Buddy Saltzman accented the recording with bombastic around the kit fills and ghost notes while never using a cymbal once.

The single version (with a two-line sung introduction) was never recorded in true stereo. Early "stereo" album releases were rechanneled (with the high and low frequencies on one channel and the midrange on the other); later stereo issues, from the Edizione d'Oro greatest hits album onward, offer different takes of the recording, One begins with a short drum intro, featuring a louder perhaps even more frantic drum backing by legendary session drummer Buddy Saltzman, and slightly different vocals. Both versions state they are two minutes, eleven seconds long--neither is. The stereo Dawn is two minutes, thirty seconds. The mono Dawn with the "Pretty as midsummer's morn. They called her Dawn" intro is two minutes 45 seconds.

Fun fact: The drummer was Mickey Jones, who played with Trini Lopez and was Bob Dylan's tour drummer after Levon Helm dropped out. He was also the mechanic/sheriff in National Lampoons Vacation.

This is one of the most important occurrences of '60's Rock and Roll. The nexus of the people involved is legendary. The Yardbirds, the Who, (soon to be) Led Zeppelin, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Duane Allman (Allman Brothers), Rod Stewart, et al. The recording session brought together a group of musicians, including Jimmy Page, Keith Moon, John Paul Jones, and Nicky Hopkins, who later agreed that the line up was a first attempt at what became Led Zeppelin. This was a major spark for a lot of what was to be for so many involved. Beck, Page, Hopkins, Jones, and Moon were pleased with the outcome of the recording session and there was talk of forming a working group and additional recordings. This led to the famous quip, "Yeah, it'll go down like a lead zeppelin", which Page later used, with a slight spelling change, for his new group. Page ascribed it to Moon, while Beck's and Led Zeppelin's later manager Peter Grant claimed Moon used the phrase "go down like a lead balloon", to which Entwistle added "more like a lead zeppelin". Entwistle, on the other hand, insists that he came up with the name independently along with the idea of using an image of "a Zeppelin going down in flames" for an album cover. Led Zeppelin biographer Keith Shadwick notes that forming an actual group at the time "was never a realistic option", due to existing contractual obligations.

The recording session for "Beck's Bolero" was conceived of as a side project for Jeff Beck while he was a member of the Yardbirds. "It was decided that it would be a good idea for me to record some of my own stuff ... partly to stop me moaning about the Yardbirds", Beck recalled. Also, the Yardbirds' management was encouraging individual band members to bring attention to the band through success in solo projects. Studio time was booked for May 1966 at the IBC Studios in London. To prepare for the session, Beck called on long-time friend and studio guitarist Jimmy Page, who had recommended Beck as Eric Clapton's replacement in the Yardbirds, to work up some ideas for songs to record.

Although there is a disagreement over credits for the composition, both Beck and Page agree that Page began by playing some chords on a twelve-string guitar using a rhythm based on Boléro. A melody line for guitar was developed along with a middle section to break up the rhythm, reminiscent of the Yardbirds' arrangements for "For Your Love" and "Shapes of Things".

With at least the outline of one song and Page on board to play guitar, Beck approached Keith Moon of the Who, whom he considered one of his favourite drummers. Moon was unhappy with the Who at the time and readily agreed to participate. To avoid a confrontation with Pete Townshend and Kit Lambert, the Who's manager, Moon wished to do so incognito. He recommended bandmate John Entwistle, who was similarly discontented with the Who, to provide the bass. When Entwistle did not show, studio musicians John Paul Jones and Nicky Hopkins were brought in at the last minute to provide bass and piano. There is an unsubstantiated account that Ritchie Blackmore may have been involved at the studio, but his participation has not been acknowledged by Beck, Page, or others at the session. For all their attempts at secrecy, Townshend learned of Moon's move. Beck recalled, "I remember [Pete] Townshend looking daggers at me when he heard it ... because it was a bit near the mark. He didn't want anybody meddling with that territory [his band, the Who] at all". Townshend also took to referring to Beck and Page as "flashy little guitarists of very little brain" for their perceived subterfuge (Page responded with "Townshend got into feedback because he couldn't play single notes"). In a later interview, Townshend explained: "The thing is when Keith did Beck's 'Bolero', that wasn't just a session, that was a political move. It was at a point when the group was very close to breaking up. Keith was very paranoid and going through a heavy pills thing. He wanted to make the group plead for him because he'd joined Beck." Differences with Moon were resolved and he returned to the Who shortly after the recording.

For the guitar parts, Beck used a Gibson Les Paul played through a Vox AC30 amplifier and Page played a Fender Electric XII twelve-string electric guitar. Halfway through the song, Moon smashed the drum microphone with his stick – "You can actually hear him screaming as he does it", Beck remembered, "so all you can hear from then on is cymbals!" After Moon and Napier-Bell left, Beck and Page added overdubs and sound treatments to complete the track. According to Beck, two or three songs were recorded at the session, but "Beck's Bolero" was the only track released.