Pacific Gas & Electric

Pacific Gas & Electric - Get It On [The Kent Records Sessions (Bonus Tracks)] - 2008 - Big Beat Records

The original Pacific Gas & Electric "Get It On" LP was released on Kent Records in 1968. The album was reissued on CD in 2008 by Big Beat Records entitled "Get It On The Kent Record Sessions", which featured the original album, and nine bonus tracks of alternate takes. The post here contains those nine extra tracks only
Pacific Gas and Electric were a great late sixties/early seventies dynamic R&B/soul blues band. The late Charlie Allen, with his gritty vocals added drive and excitement to the band, and Glenn Schwartz was a terrific guitarist. A Shame there's not that much recorded output from PG&E, but quality is always better than quantity. Check out the original "Get It On" album @ PG&E/GIO and the band's "Live 'N' Kicking at Lexington" album can be found @ PG&E/LAX Please read what the great bassist Brent Block has to say about Pacific Gas & Electric's ex-guitarist, and founder Tom Marshall HERE

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

9. My Sweet Baby - (Take 6, alternate take) *
10. Dirty Mistreater - (Take 2, alternate take) - Charlie Allen, F. Cook, J. Hill
11. Wade in the Water - (undubbed version alternate take) - Trad.
12. Cry, Cry, Cry - (take 2 alternate take) - Deadric Malone
13. Stormy Times - (Take 9, alternate take) - Brent Block
14. Long Handled Shovel - (Take 8, alternate take) - Allen, Charlie/Brent Block/Frank Cook/Marshall, Tom/Glenn Schwartz
15. Jelly, Jelly - (Take 1, alternate take) - Eckstine, William/Earl Hines
16. Hunter, The - (Take 1, alternate take) - Steve Cropper/Donald "Duck" Dunn/Jackson, Al Jr./Booker T. Jones/Wells, Carl
17. Blues Chant - (Take 2, alternate take)

* [ It has been said that the track "My Sweet Baby" on the "Get It On" CD does not sound like Charlie Allen's vocals. According to drummer, Frank Cook, Freddie DeMann heard a few young guys singing one night and was interested in the guys' recording potential. Freddie DeMann called some musicians and formed a makeshift studio band. One of the musicians is definitely PG&E's drummer, Frank Cook. Frank can't remember the other singers names. He may have never been told. Although it's not strictly a genuine "PG&E" recording, it's a good song, and an interesting piece of rock music history ] N.B: The preceding article may not apply to "My Sweet Baby" on this CD issue, as the track is a 6th alternate take. Any more info would be appreciated on this (A.O.O.F.C)

BAND

Glenn Schwartz, Tom Marshall - guitar
Brent Block - bass
Joe Sample - organ
Frank Cook - drums
Charlie Allen RIP - vocals

BIO (Wikipedia)

Pacific Gas & Electric was an American rock band, best known for the song "Are You Ready?" released in 1970. The band's history dates from 1967 in Los Angeles. Self-taught guitarist Tom Marshall met bassist Brent Block at a party thrown by Block's former art teacher and formed a band then named "Pacific Gas and Electric Blues Band". It was one of the first multiracial bands to be part of the Los Angeles music scene. An early member was Charlie Allen (May 1, 1942 - May 7, 1990), a drummer from San Francisco, whose vocal abilities were so good that he moved from drums to lead singer, and was replaced on drums by Canned Heat's former drummer, Frank Cook, who had earlier signed to manage the band. In 1968, the band name was shortened to "Pacific Gas & Electric", and included Allen, Cook, Marshall, Block, and guitarist Glenn Schwartz (also of James Gang and All Saved Freak Band). They released their first album, Get It On, that year on the Power record label (it was subsequently released on Big Orange, Kent and United Superior as well). Although it only reached #159 on the album charts, someone at Columbia Records was listening, as they signed the band to a recording contract shortly after their appearance at the Miami Pop Festival in December of 1968. The next album, and the first released by Columbia, was simply called Pacific Gas and Electric (1969). However, it was the next release, Are You Ready, that included their first mainstream hit. The title track reached #14 in the summer of 1970, and featured the backing vocals of The Blackberries. Wholesale changes were in store for the group after recording the Are You Ready album. After a serious car accident, Cook was replaced on drums by Ron Woods, and he stayed on as manager. Schwartz announced his conversion to Christianity onstage during a concert and then later joined the All Saved Freak Band. Marshall also left, and the two were replaced by Frank Petricca on bass and Ken Utterback on guitar, with Brent Block moving to rhythm guitar from bass. This is the line-up that toured in support of Are You Ready. This version of the band recorded a self-titled album in 1971 (minus Block, who had left the band in late 1970), adding Jerry Aiello on keyboards, trumpet player Stanley Abernathy, sax players Alfred Galagos and Virgil Gonsalves, and percussionist Joe LaLa. At the request of the utility company sharing the same name, the band name was shortened to "P G & E". The band did countless concerts, often appearing with other big musical acts of the era. At one P G & E show, writer and film producer Lawrence Schiller filmed his documentary, The Lexington Experience. Disagreements with the owners to the rights to the music caused the film to be shelved after only a few showings, and the only copies known to exist are in Schiller's vault. They made more movie history when they appeared in, and provided music to, the Otto Preminger film Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, starring Liza Minnelli. Their song "Staggolee" was also featured in the Quentin Tarantino film Death Proof. After 1972, the group's line-up became unstable, resembling more of an Allen solo project. One more album was forthcoming: ...Starring Charlie Allen in 1973 on the Dunhill label, featuring Allen and a host of studio musicians.