Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 1928 (starts 7/8/19)

    This week we hear a train comin' across the river to see a ritual fire dance. And that's just for starters. By the end of the hour you'll realize that it truly is a Strange Universe.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix/Band Of Gypsys
Title:    Hear My Train A Comin'
Source:    LP: People, Hell And Angels
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Experience Hendrix/Legacy
Year:    Recorded 1969, released 2013
    It was June of 1969. Jimi Hendrix had just disbanded the Experience and was anxious to try out new ideas with new people. To this end he invited drummer Buddy Miles (who had made a couple guest appearances on the third Experience album, Electric Ladyland) and his old friend, bassist Billy Cox, whom he had worked with when both were sidemen on the "chitlin' circuit" in the early to mid 1960s. One of the first songs they recorded was Hear My Train A Comin', a blues number that Hendrix had recently begun work on, and that would end up as part of his set at Woodstock a couple months later. Following the Woodstock performance, Hendrix, Cox and Miles reunited as Band Of Gypsys, recording a live album at Madison Square Garden at the end of the year.

Artist:    Zephyr
Title:    Cross The River
Source:    CD: Zephyr
Writer:    Candie and David Givens
Label:    One Way (original label: ABC Probe)
Year:    1969
    The Boulder, Colorado band Zephyr featured the vocal talents of Candie Givens, who had a multi-octave range that would not be equalled until Mariah Carey hit the scene years later. Also in the band was lead guitarist Tommy Bolin, who would go on to take over lead guitar duties with first the James Gang and then Deep Purple before embarking on a solo career. Unfortunately that career (and Bolin's life) was permanently derailed by a heroin overdose at age 28. The rest of this talented band consisted of Robbie Chamerlin on drums, John Faris on keyboards and David Givens (who co-wrote Cross The River with his wife Candie) on bass.

Artist:    Czar
Title:    Ritual Fire Dance
Source:    Mono British import CD: Love, Poetry And Revolution
Writer(s):    de Falla/arr. Hodges
Label:    Grapefruit
Year:    Recorded 1970, released 2013
    After a series of unsuccessful singles for various labels from 1965-1969, Tuesday's Children decided to abandon light pop for a more progressive sound, changing their name to Czar in the process. Czar's debut LP came out in May of 1970, but it was missing one track due to difficulties over publishing rights: an adaptation of Spanish composer Manuel de Falla's Ritual Fire Dance that the group had recorded in February of that year, about a month after their first gig using their new name. The track was finally released in demo form on Grapefruit Records' 2013 anthology Love, Poetry And Revolution.
   
Artist:    Uriah Heep
Title:    Why
Source:    British import CD: Look At Yourself (bonus track)
Writer(s):    Box/Byron/Hensley/Newton
Label:    Sanctuary/BMG
Year:    Recorded 1971, released 2003
    One of Uriah Heep's great "lost" recordings, Why was one of those tunes that lent itself to extended jamming, often running over 14 minutes in length when the band played it in concert. This eleven-minute version recorded in 1971 as the band was working on their third LP, Look At Yourself, showed up on one of many outtake reels that were discovered in 2003. According to bassist Paul Newton, producer Gerry Bron was not fond of the piece, which may explain why it remained unavailable for so many years.

Artist:    Steely Dan
Title:    Reeling In The Years
Source:    45 RPM single (stereo reissue)
Writer(s):    Becker/Fagen
Label:    MCA (original label: ABC)
Year:    1972
    My first radio gig (sort of), was volunteering at the Voice Of Holloman, a closed-circuit station that served a handful of locations on Holloman AFB, about 10 miles from Alamogordo, NM. I had been taking broadcasting courses through a community college program that was taught by Sgt. Tim Daniels, who was the NCO in charge of the base Information Office. As such he ran the station, as well as a free weekly newspaper that was distributed on base. After completing the classes, Tim gave me the opportunity to do a daily two-hour show on the VOH, using records that had been sent to the station by various record labels. We got excellent singles service from some labels (Warner Brothers and Capitol in particular), but virtually nothing from others, such as ABC. This was unfortunate, as one of the best songs out at the time was Steely Dan's Reeling In The Years, from their 1972 Can't Buy A Thrill album. Tim, whose previous gig was with the Armed Forces Vietnam Network, was a big rock fan, however, and went out and bought his own copy of the album, making a copy of Reeling In The Years on reel to reel tape, which we then played extensively until the song had run its course on the charts. Thus the Voice Of Holloman, with its audience consisting mostly of guys working out at the base gym, was playing the longer album version of a song that was also getting airplay on Alamogordo's daytime-only top 40 AM station, KINN, in its edited single form. It was just about the nearest the Voice Of Holloman ever got to being an underground rock station (although I did manage to sneak in some Procol Harum, Little Feat and Deep Purple from time to time from the aformentioned Warner Brothers singles).

Artist:    Fleetwood Mac
Title:    My Dream
Source:    LP: Then Play On (first US version)
Writer(s):    Danny Kirwan
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1969
    Danny Kirwan was only 17 and fronting his own band, Boilerhouse, when he came to the attention of Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green. Green invited the band to play a few opening gigs for Fleetwood Mac and before long the two guitarists were participating in after hours jams together. Drummer Mick Fleetwood invited Kirwan to join the band, and Kirwan became the group's fifth official member (Christine McVie still having guest artist status at that point). After making his debut sharing lead guitar duties with Green on an instrumental single, Albatross, Kirwan settled in as a songwriting member of the band in time for their 1969 LP Then Play On, contributing as many songs to the album as Green himself (although the US version left two of those songs off the LP). Shortly after Then Play On's release, the group had a huge international hit with Oh, Well (part one), which led to the band's US label, Reprise, recalling the album and reissuing it with Oh Well (parts one and two) added to it. To make way for the nearly nine-minute track, two more of Kirwan's songs were deleted from the lineup. One of those two songs was the instrumental My Dream, which has been reinserted into the lineup on recent CD releases.

Artist:    Who
Title:    The Acid Queen
Source:    LP: Tommy
Writer(s):    Pete Townshend
Label:    Decca
Year:    1969
    Pete Townshend, the primary composer of the Who's rock opera Tommy, takes the lead vocals on The Acid Queen, a song that, while integral to the Tommy storyline, also stands as one of Townshend's strongest standalone compositions. The song is sung from the first person viewpoint of a gypsy who promises to cure Tommy's condition (blind, deaf and dumb) by using a combination of sex and drugs. Although her efforts are unsuccessful, the attempt itself has a profound effect on the youngster, who explores his inner self under the influence of LSD. Townshend himself has said that the song is "not just about acid: it's the whole drug thing, the drink thing, the sex thing wrapped into one big ball." In a reference to peer pressure, he adds that "society – people – force it on you. She represents this force." The song later became a hit single for, not surprisingly, Tina Turner, who played the part of the Acid Queen in the hit movie version of Tommy.

Artist:    Wishbone Ash
Title:    Leaf And Stream
Source:    LP: Argus
Writer:    Wishbone Ash
Label:    Decca
Year:    1972
    One of the first bands ever to feature two lead guitarists was Wishbone Ash. The story goes that following the departure of their original guitarist bassist Martin Turner and drummer Steve Upton auditioned several lead guitarists and got it down to two finalists, Andy Powell and Ted Turner (no relation to Martin), but could not decide between the two. At that point they decided just to keep both of them, and a heavy metal tradition was born. Whether the story is true or not, the two definitely traded off leads for the next three years and five albums, even on relatively quiet songs such as Leaf And Stream from their third LP, Argus. Like the majority of Wishbone Ash tunes from that time period, Leaf And Stream is sung by Martin Turner.

Artist:    Cheech And Chong
Title:    Streets of New York or Los Angeles or San Francisco or...
Source:    LP: Big Bambu
Writer(s):    Marin/Chong
Label:    Ode
Year:    1971
    Cheech And Chong's second LP, Big Bambu, is best remembered for its inclusion of a huge (about 10" by 20") rolling paper graced with the watermarked image of Cheech Marin and Thomas Chong. The album, released in late 1971, also contained some of their best bits including Streets of New York or Los Angeles or San Francisco or... in which a panhandler discovers a way to increase his productivity thanks to a chance encounter with...well, that would be giving away the punch line.

Artist:    Mahogany Rush
Title:    Strange Universe
Source:    Canadian import CD: Strange Universe
Writer(s):    Frank Marino
Label:    Just A Minute (original label: 20th Century)
Year:    1975
    Although there are countless guitarists that have been influenced by Jimi Hendrix in various ways, only one has been able to capture his entire sound from a production as well as performance standpoint. That one is Frank Marino, whose band, Mahogany Rush, has been recording since 1972. A listen to the title track of the 1975 album Strange Universe pretty much proves my point.