https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/468839-dc-2315
This week we do a little catching up, playing several tracks that we've been meaning play for a while now, but for various reasons never got around to actually playing. Among those are some truly obscure tunes from Marvin Gaye and the Undisputed Truth, as well as personal favorites from Joni Mitchell and the Allman Brothers Band, and that's barely scratching the surface.
Artist: Paul Simon
Title: Kodachrome
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1973
Paul Simon's Kodachrome was actually banned on some stations, but not for copyright infringement (Kodachrome being a registered trademark of Kodak). Rather, it was banned for the first line of the song: "When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all." Apparently "crap" offended some programmers, to the point that one station (New York's WABC) even edited the offending line to "When I think back it's a wonder I can think at all" when they played the song. Not only does that line not make any sense, I can only imagine how that must have sounded with almost four measures edited out (but with one beat left in, just to totally throw off the rhythm of the song). Apparently, though, this kind of stuff is what used to make America great, if current political thought is to be believed.
Artist: Black Sabbath
Title: Paranoid
Source: LP: Paranoid
Writer(s): Iommi/Osborne/Butler/Ward
Label: Rhino/Warner Brothers
Year: 1970
Although it was the last track recorded for Black Sabbath's second album, Paranoid was actually the first song released from the sessions, appearing as a single about six months after the band's first LP hit the racks. The song, according to bassist Geezer Butler, was recorded as an afterthought, when the band realized they needed a three minute filler piece for the LP. Tony Iommi came up with the basic riff, which Butler quickly wrote lyrics for. Singer Ozzie Osbourne reportedly sang the lyrics directly from the handwritten lyric sheet. Paranoid turned out to be one of Black Sabbath's most popular tunes, and has shown up on several "best of" lists, including VH1's "40 Greatest Metal Songs", where it holds the # 1 spot. In Finland, the song has attained near-legendary status, and the phase "Soittakaa Paranoid!" can often be heard being yelled out from a member of the audience at a rock concert there, regardless of what band is actually on stage (much as "Free Bird" was heard at various concerts in the US throughout the 70s and 80s).
Artist: Gun
Title: Rupert's Travels
Source: German import CD: Gun
Writer(s): Adrian Curtis (Gurvitz)
Label: Repertoire
Year: 1968
The Gun made a huge splash in Germany and the UK with their debut single Race With The Devil in 1968. They followed it up with a self-titled LP that same year. The shortest track on that LP was an instrumental tune called Rupert's Travels that has been compared to the Mason Williams hit Classical Gas. Personally I don't hear the resemblance.
Artist: Marvin Gaye
Title: Sad Tomorrows
Source: Mono 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Gaye/Gordy/Wilkinson
Label: Tamla
Year: 1971
When Marvin Gaye released, Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology), his second single from the landmark LP What's Going On, he chose to include an early version of another track from the album, Flyin' High (In The Friendly Sky), retitling it Sad Tomorrows. Lyrically it is the same song, but is over a minute shorter than the album track.
Artist: Undisputed Truth
Title: If I Die
Source: British import CD: Nothing But The Truth (originally released on LP: Law Of The Land)
Writer(s): Peter Hoorelbeke
Label: Kent (original label: Gordy)
Year: 1973
If I Die, from the 1973 album Law Of The Land by the Undisputed Truth, is a good example of the way recordings were assembled at Motown in the early 1970s. The original instrumental backing track by the Funk Brothers (with a working title of And When I Die) was recorded at Motown's studio A on March 9, 1972, and was intended for Edwin Starr. The song was reassigned to the Undisputed Truth two months later, with lead vocal tracks recorded on May 17th. The group added backup vocals on June 2nd, with horn overdubs added on October 5th. The album itself was released in June of 1973, fifteen months after the beginning of the recording process.
Artist: Allman Brothers Band
Title: Don't Want You No More/It's Not My Cross To Bear
Source: CD: Beginnings (originally released on LP: The Allman Brothers Band)
Writer(s): Davis/Hardin/Allman
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1969
The first Allman Brothers band album sold poorly outside of the southeastern US and was pulled from the shelves within a year. Meanwhile, the second album, Idlewild South, did a bit better and the third album, recorded live at the Fillmore East, was a breakout hit. This prompted Capricorn, which in the meantime had morphed from a production house to a full-blown label, to reissue the first two albums as a 2-record set for the price of one. Don't Want You No More is an instrumental (originally recorded by the post-Winwood version of the Spencer Davis Group) that serves as an introduction to both the band and their first album, and segues directly into the Gregg Allman tune It's Not My Cross To Bear.
Artist: Fleetwood Mac
Title: Show-Biz Blues
Source: CD: Then Play On
Writer(s): Peter Green
Label: Reprise
Year: 1969
Then Play On was the third and final Fleetwood Mac studio LP to feature founder Peter Green on vocals and lead guitar. Green wrote a majority of the songs on the album, including Show-Biz Blues (also known as Showbiz Blues), a piece that shows Green's affinity for country blues.
Artist: Eric Clapton
Title: Easy Now
Source: Mono 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Eric Clapton
Label: Atco
Year: 1970
When it comes to Eric Clapton's Easy Now (from his first solo album), the word most often used by critics is "underrated". The song was never intended to be a hit single. In fact, it was released as a B side, not once but twice, in 1970 (paired with After Midnight) and 1972 (paired with Let It Rain). Nonetheless, Easy Now holds up better than most of the tracks on the album itself, and has been singled out as one of the best songs Clapton has ever written. The song was also included on the 1972 LP Eric Clapton At His Best.
Artist: Steely Dan
Title: Rikki Don't Lose That Number
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s): Becker/Fagen
Label: MCA (original label: ABC)
Year: 1974
Contrary to what you may have heard, Rikki Don't Lose That Number, from the album Pretzel Logic, is not about using the US Postal Service to mail yourself weed. This is according to both Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, who are generally known for being deliberately obscure. The fact that they both, on separate occasions, have addressed the issue leads me to take their version of the story, that the subject of the song was a young woman Fagen knew in college, as the correct one. What's not in dispute is this: Rikki Don't Lose That Number was Steely Dan's biggest hit single, deservedly so.
Artist: Joni Mitchell
Title: Trouble Child/Twisted
Source: LP: Court And Spark
Writer(s): Mitchell/Ross/Gray
Label: Asylum
Year: 1974
My favorite tracks on Joni Mitchell's 1974 album Court And Spark are Trouble Child and Twisted, which play as one piece to close out the album itself. Both songs address mental health issues, with Trouble Child being a deep and serious and yes, analytical piece, while Twisted (originally written as a 1947 instrumental by saxophonist Wardell Gray with lyrics added in 1952 by vocalist Annie Ross) is a lightheard tune satirizing analysis itself. As an added bonus, Twisted features a short cameo appearance by Cheech Marin and Thomas Chong.
Artist: Firesign Theatre
Title: Channel 6 Happy Hour News
Source: LP: Everything You Know Is Wrong
Writer(s): Proctor/Bergman/Austin/Ossman
Label: Columbia
Year: 1974
The 1974 Firesign Theatre album Everything You Know Is Wrong takes on several trends of the mid-1970s, including the UFO craze, the "happy talk" TV news style, Evel Knievel (voiced by Phil Austin) and even Howard Cosell (Peter Bergman). Much of this can be heard in the final four minutes of the album's first side, hosted by the "Where It's At" team of Harold Hiphugger (David Ossman) and Ray Hamberger (Phil Proctor).
Artist: Black Oak Arkansas
Title: Hey Y'all
Source: CD: Street Party
Writer(s): Black Oak Arkansas
Label: Wounded Bird (original label: Atco)
Year: 1974
Black Oak Arkansas hit their commercial peak with the 1974 album High On The Hog. Although they continued to be one of the top live bands in the US, their subsequent LP, Street Party, did not do as well as their previous albums, despite the presence of catchy tunes like Hey Y'all.
Artist: Genesis
Title: The Musical Box
Source: CD: Nursery Cryme
Writer(s): Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label: Atlantic (original label: Charisma)
Year: 1971
In a sense, the story of the rock band known as Genesis gets underway with the release of the 1971 album Nursery Cryme. Technically it was the third Genesis album. However, the first two albums, From Genesis To Revelation and Trespass, were not really rock albums at all. It was only after the departure of original guitarist Anthony Phillips and his replacement by Steve Hackett, along with the addition of drummer Phil Collins, that Genesis became a true electric rock band, albeit one with a heavy element of British folk music. Although Genesis sounded nothing like harder British progressive rock bands like Yes or Emerson, Lake and Palmer, their music was every bit as innovative and complex, as plainly can be heard on the ten minute long opening track from Nursery Cryme, The Musical Box. The lyrics of the song are based on a fairy tale by Peter Gabriel about two children in a country house, one of which (a girl) kills the other by beheading him with a croquet mallet. From there, it only gets weirder (and more adult). The Musical Box is still considered one of Genesis' most influential works, and has even inspired a group of young musicians to call themselves The Musical Box.
No comments:
Post a Comment