https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/360911-dc-2111
This week the emphasis is on some iconic longer pieces, beginning with the first track on the first King Crimson album and ending with the entire second side of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon. As for what goes on between the two, read on...
Artist: King Crimson
Title: 21st Century Schizoid Man
Source: CD: In The Court Of The Crimson King
Writer: Fripp/McDonald/Lake/Giles/Sinfield
Label: Discipline Global Mobile (original US label: Atlantic)
Year: 1969
There are several bands with a legitimate claim to starting the prog-rock movement of the mid-70s. The one most musicians cite as the one that started it all, however, is King Crimson. Led by Robert Fripp, the band went through several personnel changes over the years. Many of the members went on to greater commercial success as members of other bands, including guitarist/keyboardist Ian McDonald (Foreigner), and lead vocalist/bassist Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) from the original lineup heard on In The Court Of The Crimson King. Additionally, poet Peter Sinfield, who wrote all King Crimson's early lyrics, would go on to perform a similar function for Emerson, Lake and Palmer, including their magnum opus Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends. Other original members included Michael Giles on drums and Fripp himself on guitar. 21st Century Schizoid Man, as the first song on the first album by King Crimson, can quite literally be cited as the song that got the whole thing started.
Artist: Humble Pie
Title: I'll Go Alone
Source: LP: Lost & Found (originally released in UK on LP: As Safe As Yesterday Is)
Writer(s): Peter Frampton
Label: A&M (original UK label: Immediate)
Year: 1969
Humble Pie was one of the first British rock supergroups, formed in January of 1969 by Steve Marriott (formerly of the Small Faces), Peter Frampton (formerly of the Herd), Greg Ridley (from Spooky Tooth) and Jerry Shirley. Both Frampton and Marriott had prior commitments with their previous bands, however, and, although they managed to record over three albums' worth of material over the next few months, were not able to release their debut LP, As Safe As Yesterday Is, until August of that year. Both Frampton and Marriott played guitar and keyboards on the album, with each doing lead vocals on their own compositions, such as Frampton's I'll Go Alone. The song is preceded on the album by a fairly short untitled instrumental track that is sometimes considered part of I'll Go Alone, despite being stylistically dissimilar and having a few seconds of silence between them. Here we have the main song itself, without the instrumental piece.
Artist: Yes
Title: Heart Of The Sunrise
Source: CD: Fragile
Writer(s): Anderson/Squire/Bruford
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1971
Although it is the fourth most played song in the Yes catalogue, Heart Of The Sunrise, from the 1971 album Fragile, was never issued as a single. This is due mostly to the fact that the track runs over ten minutes in length, far exceeding even such lengthy tunes as Paradise By The Dashboard Light, American Pie or MacArthur Park. The song was written by Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Bill Bruford and Rick Wakeman, but due to contractual reasons, Wakeman's name had to be left off the credits.
Artist: Quees
Title: Somebody To Love
Source: LP: A Day At The Races
Writer(s): Freddie Mercury
Label: Elektra
Year: 1976
Queen followed up its massively popular album A Night At The Opera with another LP named for a Marx Brothers film: A Day At The Races. Although the new LP did not have any songs of the caliber of Bohemian Rhapsody (is such a thing even possible?), it did have a solid hit single in Freddie Mercury's Somebody To Love. The song features the same type of multi-tracked harmonies (by Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor) as Bohemian Rhapsody, but done in a gospel choir rather than operatic style. Somebody To Love hit the #2 spot on the British charts, peaking at #13 in the US.
Artist: Joni Mitchell
Title: Shades Of Scarlett Conquering
Source: LP: The Hissing Of Summer Lawns
Writer(s): Joni Mitchell
Label: Asylum
Year: 1975
Joni Mitchell was always known for sophisticated lyrics, but after making her switch from Reprise to Asylum, her music began to take on a sophistication of its own. While still based in folk-rock, it increasingly incorporated jazz idioms to create a sound that was uniquely Mitchell's. This trend reached its fulfillment with the 1975 album The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, featuring complex songs such as Shades Of Scarlett Conquering. The song is a poetic observation of women who actually look to fictional character Scarlett O'Hara as a role model. If at first that seems a bit absurd, rest assured that I have met such women as recently as the 1990s.
Artist: Steely Dan
Title: Any Major Dude Will Tell You
Source: LP: Pretzel Logic
Writer(s): Becker/Fagen
Label: MCA (original label: ABC)
Year: 1974
For a while it looked like Steely Dan would, like many other early 70s bands, start strong and then slowly fade away. Their debut single, Do It Again, got a lot of airplay on AM top 40 radio, which actually worked against them when it came to the more album-oriented FM stations that were starting to pop up all over the US. Despite the fact that their second LP, Countdown To Ecstacy, was much more suited to FM, it was pretty much ignored by FM rock stations at the time. However, it all came together for the group with the release of their third LP, Pretzel Logic, in 1974. In addition to a big hit single (Rikki Don't Lose That Number), Pretzel Logic included several FM-friendly tunes, such as Any Major Dude Will Tell You, and was a favorite of the rock press.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Dark Side Of The Moon-part two
Source: CD: Dark Side Of The Moon
Writer(s): Gilmour/Mason/Waters/Wright
Label: Capitol (original label: Harvest)
Year: 1973
Usually when you hear Pink Floyd's Money, from the album Dark Side Of The Moon, on the radio, that's pretty much it. As the song fades out, you maybe hear a jingle, or a DJ talking, or even another song from some other group. What you rarely, if ever, hear is the rest of the album side, even though the next song, Us And Them, actually overlaps the end of Money on the album itself. In fact, all the songs on side two run together as one piece, which is how it is being presented on Rockin' in the Days of Confusion. So if you want to hear Us And Them, Any Colour You Like, Brain Damage and Eclipse, don't touch your radio dial (except to turn up the volume, of course).
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