Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2023 (starts 6/1/20)

    This week is a Time Machine episode. The first half (more or less) is made up entirely of tracks released in 1969. We then jump ahead three years to finish out the show in 1972. Enjoy!

Artist:    Grand Funk Railroad
Title:    Time Machine
Source:    CD: Heavy Hitters (originally released on LP: On Time)
Writer:    Mark Farner
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1969
    Universally panned by the rock press, the first Grand Funk Railroad album, On Time, was at best a moderate success when it was first released. Thanks to the band's extensive touring, however, GFR had built up a sizable following by the time their self-titled follow up LP (aka the Red Album) was released in 1970. That year, Grand Funk Railroad became the first rock band to chalk up four gold albums in the same year, with Closer To Home and their double-LP live album joining the first two studio albums on the million seller list. One of the most popular tracks from On Time was Time Machine, which captures the essence of the band's early years.

Artist:    Ten Years After
Title:    Woman Trouble
Source:    CD: Stonedhenge
Writer(s):    Alvin Lee
Label:    Deram
Year:    1969
    In the late 60s and early 70s it was fashionable for a garage band to use a jazzy-sounding instrumental for its break song. Don't ask me why, it just was. Sunn, the band I was in (in various iterations) from 1969-71, was no exception. Hell, maybe we were the only ones doing it, for all I know. The first incarnation of the band used a piece inspired by Bobby Troup (the writer of Route 66), who appeared in short segments between shows of AFTV, the only English language TV station in Germany at the time. He'd always start the segment with a quick guitar lick and the words "Hi! I'm Bobby Troup". Our guitarist, Dave Mason (no, not That Dave Mason) borrowed the rift and came up our first break song, which he called "Dedicated to Bobby Troup". We kept on using that one up through the summer of 1970, when both of our fathers' overseas tours ended. I ended up in New Mexico, while Dave found himself in Oklahoma. In early 1971 Dave hopped on a Greyhound bus, bound for California, but only had enough money ($48.60) for a ticket to Alamogordo, NM, where I was living. By then Dave had already gone through two more incarnations of Sunn, so when we decided to reform the band it was (unofficially) Sunn IV. Late that spring, Dave decided to return to Oklahoma; two weeks later (right after graduation) our other guitarist, Doug Phillips, and I followed Dave there to form the fifth and final incarnation of Sunn. It was, by far, the most professional version of the band, once we had settled on a final lineup that included a third guitarist DeWayne Davis, on rhythm (Dave and Doug split the lead guitar duties), and his close friend Mike Higgins on drums (I played bass). Rather than revive our old instrumental break song, we decided to use Woman Trouble, a Ten Years After track from the Stonedhenge album, instead. The song was different enough from our hard rock repertoire that it served notice to the audience that something was up. After a verse and chorus I would introduce each band member at the end of their solo (except DeWayne, who, like the guy in the Sultans Of Swing, had no desire to do anything but play chords). We then went back for a repeat of the verse, then took our break. Good times, those.
Years later, incidentally, I met up with DeWayne again, who had moved to El Paso and had developed his lead guitar skills way beyond either Dave's or Doug's. I guess that shows that you really do need to watch the quiet ones.

Artist:    Santana
Title:    Persuasion
Source:    CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On-Back To Yasgur's Farm
Writer(s):    Santana (band)
Label:    Rhino
Year:    Recorded 1969, released 2009
    Carlos Santana took a bunch of acid before going on stage at Woodstock, or so the story goes. He himself has said that he only truly got it togther just as the band broke into Soul Sacrifice. That may well be, but their performance of Persuasion sure sounds pretty together as well.

Artist:    Blood, Sweat & Tears
Title:    Blues-Part II/Variations On A Theme By Erik Satie
Source:    CD: Blood, Sweat & Tears
Writer(s):    Blood, Sweat & Tears
Label:    Columbia/Legacy
Year:    1969
    Although it was the brainchild of keyboardist/vocalist Al Kooper, the band known as Blood, Sweat & Tears had its greatest success after Kooper left the band following the release of their debut LP, Child Is Father To The Man. The group's self-titled second LP, featuring new lead vocalist David Clayton-Thomas, yielded no less than three top 5 singles: You Made Me So Very Happy, And When I Die and Spinning Wheel. For me, however, the outstanding track on the album was the thirteen minute plus Blues-Part II, which takes up most of side two of the original LP. I first heard this track on a show that ran late at night on AFN in Germany. I had already heard the band's first two hit singles and was not particularly impressed with them, but after hearing Blues-Part II I went out and bought a copy of the LP. Luckily, it was not the only track on the album that I found more appealing than the singles (God Bless The Child in particular stands out), but after all these years, Blues-Part II is still my favorite BS&T recording.

Artist:     Pink Floyd
Title:     Astronomy Domine
Source:     CD: Ummagumma
Writer:     Syd Barrett
Label:     EMI (original label: Harvest)
Year:     1969
     By 1969, Syd Barrett was no longer with Pink Floyd due to his rapidly deteriorating mental health. Still, the remaining band members (along with Barrett's replacement David Gilmour) continued to perform Barrett's compositions. The 1969 album Ummagumma was a double LP, with two sides of new studio recordings and two sides of live performances, such as Barrett's Astronomy Domine, which had originally appeared on the first Pink Floyd album The Piper At the Gates of Dawn.

Artist:    Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Title:    Hoedown
Source:    CD: Trilogy
Writer(s):    Aaron Copeland
Label:    Atlantic (original label: Cotillion)
Year:    1972
    During their first couple of years of touring, Emerson, Lake & Palmer tried out a series of opening numbers, some of which worked better than others. Following the release of their third LP, Trilogy, in 1972, that was no longer a problem. The album's first track, Keith Emerson's adaptation of composer Aaron Copland's Hoedown (from the ballet Rodeo), immediately became the group's concert opener as well, remaining there throughout the band's most popular years. Bassist/vocalist Greg Lake later called Trilogy his favorite ELP album.

Artist:    Paul Simon
Title:    Mother And Child Reunion
Source:    45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s):    Paul Simon
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1972
    Paul Simon became one of the first white musicians to incorporate elements of reggae music into a rock song with his 1972 hit Mother And Child Reunion. Before recording sessions commenced, Simon was instructed by members of Toots And The Maytals and Jimmy Cliff's band on the differences between reggae, ska and bluebeat. The song itself was recorded at Dynamic Sounds Studios at Torrington Bridge in Kingston, Jamaica with many of those same musicians. Simon finished the song by adding piano and vocal tracks in New York at a later date.

Artist:    T. Rex
Title:    Lady
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Marc Bolan
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1972
    Lady is the non-album B side of the T. Rex single Metal Guru, from the 1972 LP The Slider. At least that was the case in the US. In other countries, including the UK, it was one of two songs on the single's B side, making it a sort of EP track. The American pressing of the single is relatively rare, as Metal Guru was an international hit (in fact it spent four weeks at #1 in the UK), but did not chart at all in the US and was soon deleted.

Artist:    Flash
Title:    Morning Haze
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Ray Bennett
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1972
    Following a bit of prog-rock membership shuffling, original Yes guitarist Peter Banks found himself leading a band called Flash. The group also featured lead vocalist Colin Carter, drummer Mike Hough and bassist Ray Bennett. Bennett, who plays acoustic guitar and sings lead vocals on Morning Haze, had formerly been a bandmate of Yes drummer Bill Bruford in a group called the Breed.

Artist:    Captain Beyond
Title:    Dancing Madly Backward (On A Sea Of Air)/Armworth/Myopic Void
Source:    LP: Captain Beyond
Writer(s):    Evans/Caldwell
Label:    Capricorn
Year:    1972
    Never in my life have I been as impressed with a band I had never heard of before seeing them perform live as I was with Captain Beyond when I saw them in El Paso in 1972. They were so good I barely remember how the second band, Jo Jo Gunne sounded, and I've totally forgotten who the actual headliner was. It didn't matter though. The next day I went out and bought Captain Beyond's debut LP and immediately saw on the back cover the words "Dedicated to the memory of Duane Allman". That was, for me, simply icing on an already tasty cake. Captain Beyond opened their set the same way they opened the album itself, with Bobby Caldwell's solo drum rift setting things up for Larry (Rhino) Reinhardt's opening power chords, played in unison with Lee Dorman's bass. Rod Evans's vocals were every bit as good, if not better, than they had been when he was an original member of Deep Purple, and the group was so tight it sounded like you were listening to the album itself. The first three songs, Dancing Madly Backward (On A Sea Of Air), Armworth and Myopic Void play as a single piece. Although all the songs are officially credited only to Evans and Caldwell, it turns out that there were contractual issues concerning Reinhardt and Dorman's status as members of Iron Butterfly at the time that prevented them from sharing songwriting credits on the Captain Beyond LP.