https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/343223-dc-2043
This week's show starts on an almost classical note, with a tune that features vocals accompanied by acoustic guitar and string quartet followed by some early Genesis, but soon finds itself gravitating to solid blues from Johnny Winter, Mother Earth and the Butterfield Blues Band. But rather than staying there, the show goes off in several different directions before finishing up with a song it's almost impossible not to sing along with from the Allman Brothers Band.
Artist: Gentle Giant
Title: Dog's Life
Source: CD: Octopus
Writer(s): Minnear/Shulman/Shulman/Shulman
Label: Columbia
Year: 1972
Although not a major commercial success, Gentle Giant's fourth album, Octopus, is generally considered to be the beginning of the band's peak period, and according to band member Ray Shulman, their best album overall. One of my favorite tracks on the album is Dog's Life, which is a somewhat whimsical look at a day in the life of man's best friend, the song's musical arrangement is unique in that it combines acoustic guitar, string quartet and vocals in a way seldom heard in rock music.
Artist: Genesis
Title: The Fountain Of Salmacis
Source: Canadian import CD: Nursery Cryme
Writer(s): Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label: Atlantic (original label: Charisma)
Year: 1971
Genesis' original guitarist, Anthony Phillips, left the group following their second LP, Trespass, in 1970. This almost caused the band to break up, but ultimately resulted in a revised lineup consisting of Peter Gabriel (vocals), Tony Banks (keyboards), and Mike Rutherford (bass), along with new members Steve Hackett (guitar) and Phil Collins (drums). Early in 1971 the five got to work on a new album, which eventually came to be called Nursery Cryme. Although the album was not a huge seller in their native England, it found enough of a following in European nations such as Belgium to allow the band to continue on. The Fountain Of Salmacis, the album's closing track, was inspired by the story of a water nymph who becomes a hermaphodite after bathing in cursed water (hey, blame the ancient Greeks for that story).
Artist: Jan Hammer Group
Title: Don't You Know
Source: 45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s): Hammer/Reich
Label: Nemperor
Year: 1977
Jan Hammer is best known for composing the music used on the early 80s hit TV show, Miami Vice, including the show's main theme, which won him two Grammy awards in 1986. Born into a musical family (his mother was a popular singer in Czechoslovakia while his father, a doctor, worked his way through medical school playing vibraphone and bass guitar), Hammer first started playing piano at age four, and began to receive formal instruction on the instrument two years later. At age 14 he was performing throughout Eastern Europe (then part of the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact) with his own jazz trio, and after high school began attending the Prague Academy of Musical Arts. His formal education was cut short by the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, and Hammer soon emigrated to the US, where he attended Boston's Berklee School of Music. He continued to play jazz, touring with Sarah Vaughan and did some session work for Elvin Jones before moving to Manhattan, where he became an original member of the Mahavishnu Orchestra. He was one of the first jazz keyboardists to embrace synthesizer technology, and after doing more session work following the breakup of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Hammer formed his own jazz-rock fusion group in 1976. Don't You Know, on which Hammer plays almost all of the instruments as well as backup vocals, features Fernando Saunders on lead vocals. The song was the only single taken from the Jan Hammer Group's second LP, Melodies, which was released in 1977. Hammer has continued to record over the years, both as a solo artist and as a collaborator with such notables as Neal Schon, Jeff Beck and Mick Jagger. His latest album, Seasons-Part 1, was released in 2018.
Artist: Johnny Winter
Title: Rock And Roll Hoochie Coo
Source: European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Johnny Winter And)
Writer(s): Rick Derringer
Label: Sony Music (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1970
Athough best known as a solo Rick Derringer hit, Rock And Roll Hoochie Coo was originally recorded in 1970 by Johnny Winter for the album Johnny Winter And when Derringer was a member of Winter's band (also known as Johnny Winter And at that time). As can be heard here the arrangement on the earlier version is nearly identical to the hit version, the main differences being Winter's lead vocals and the presence of two lead guitarists in the band.
Artist: Mother Earth
Title: My Love Will Never Die
Source: LP: Living With The Animals
Writer(s): Willie Dixon
Label: Mercury
Year: 1968
Mother Earth was formed in San Francisco in 1967 by recent arrivals Tracy Nelson (from Madison, Wisconsin) and Powell St. John (from Austin, Texas). In its original incarnation the lead vocals were split between Nelson and St. John, but after the band's second LP was released Nelson announced her intention to relocate the band to Nashville, a move that St. John refused to go along with. St. John's vocals can be heard on My Love Will Never Die, a Willie Dixon tune included on Mother Earth's debut LP, Living With The Animals.
Artist: Butterfield Blues Band
Title: Everything's Gonna Be Alright
Source: CD: Woodstock 2
Writer(s): Walter Jacobs
Label: Atlantic (original label: Cotillion)
Year: 1969
The Butterfield Blues Band had already gone through several personnel changes by the time they played the Woodstock festival in August of 1969. They had also evolved stylistically, adding a horn section and, for the most part, moving away from the long improvisational jams that had characterized their landmark 1966 LP East-West. Those elements were not entirely gone, however, as their nearly nine minute long performance of Walter Jacobs' Everything's Gonna Be Alright amply demontrates. In addition to a Butterfield harmonica solo to start things off, the piece showcases the talents of new guitarist Buzzy Feiten.
Artist: Doors
Title: Roadhouse Blues
Source: Stereo 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Jim Morrison
Label: Elektra
Year: Recorded 1970, released 1978
Roadhouse Blues is one of the most instantly recognizable songs in the entire Doors catalog. Indeed, most people can identify it from the first guitar riff, long before Jim Morrison's vocals come in. The original studio version of the song was released on the album Morrison Hotel in 1970, and was also issued as the B side of one of the band's lesser-known singles. That same year the Doors undertook what became known as their Roadhouse Blues tour; many of the performances from that tour were recorded, but not released at the time. In 1978 the three remaining members of the band, Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek and John Densmore, decided to put music to some recordings of Morrison reciting his own poetry made before his death in 1971. The resulting album, An American Prayer, also included a live version of Roadhouse Blues made from two separate concert tapes from their 1970 tour. An edited version of the album track was released as a 1978 single as well.
Artist: Curtis Mayfield
Title: Freddie's Dead
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Curtis Mayfield
Label: Curtom
Year: 1972
The 1971 movie Shaft launched an entire genre of films sometimes known as "blacksploitation" movies. One of the most successful of these was the 1972 film Super Fly. The soundtrack music for Super Fly was provided by former Impressions frontman Curtis Mayfield, and released on his own Curtom label. The single Freddie's Dead, adding vocals to the film's instrumental theme, was released ahead of the film and went into the top 5 on both the Hot 100 and Billboard R&B charts. It was also nominated for a Grammy award, but lost out to the Norman Whitfield/Barrett Strong piece Papa Was A Rolling Stone, sung by the Temptations.
Artist: Who
Title: Naked Eye
Source: British import CD (Spirit Of Joy) (originally released on LP: Odds And Sods)
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: Polydor (original US label: Decca)
Year: 1974
While touring to promote the Tommy album, the Who began developing several new songs as part of their live act. Many of these appeared, at least in part, on the Live At Leeds album in 1970. One of those songs, Naked Eye, was partially recorded in the studio around the same time, but remained unfinished when the 1971 album Who's Next was released. Over the next couple of years several bootlegs of the Who's live performances were in circulation, prompting bassist John Entwhistle to compile a new album of outtakes and unreleased tracks in 1974. The album Odds And Sods, included the completed version of Naked Eye.
Artist: Neil Young
Title: Heart Of Gold
Source: CD: Decade (originally released on LP: Harvest)
Writer: Neil Young
Label: Reprise
Year: 1972
In the liner notes of his 1977 compilation album Decade, Neil Young had this to say about his hit single Heart Of Gold from the 1972 LP Harvest: "This song put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there." As a longtime resident of the ditch myself, I say thankya, Neil.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: Gonna Run
Source: CD: Watt
Writer(s): Alvin Lee
Label: Chrysalis (original label: Deram)
Year: 1970
The fifth Ten Years After album, Watt, was somewhat unfairly criticized by the rock press for being "more of the same" from the British blues-rock band. When "the same" refers to an album of the calibur of Cricklewood Green, however, that is not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, some tracks, such as Gonna Run, are at least the equal of any song on the previous album, and show a growing awareness on the part of the band of how to use the recording studio creatively.
Artist: Allman Brothers Band
Title: Revival
Source: CD: Beginnings (originally released on LP: Idlewild South0
Writer(s): Dicky Betts
Label: Polydor (original label: Capricorn)
Year: 1970
The second Allman Brothers band was the first to include songs written by guitarist Dicky Betts. One of those songs, Revival, was also issued as the first single from the album. Originally written as an instrumental, Revival is one of the most easily recognizable songs in the Allman Brothers' catalog, and was the band's first single to hit the Billboard Hot 100 chart, spending three weeks there.
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