https://exchange.prx.org/p/512763
It's another slow progression through the years this week on Rockin' in the Days of Confusion, as we travel from 1968 to 1974 and then head back down until we run out of time.
Artist: Spirit
Title: Fresh Garbage
Source: CD: Spirit
Writer(s): Jay Ferguson
Label: Ode/Epic/Legacy
Year: 1968
Much of the material on the first Spirit album was composed by vocalist Jay Ferguson while the band was living in a big house in California's Topanga Canyon outside of Los Angeles. During their stay there was a garbage strike, which became the inspiration for the album's opening track, Fresh Garbage. The song starts off as a bouncy rocker with a strong hook and suddenly breaks into a section that is pure jazz, showcasing the group's instrumental talents, before returning to the main theme to finish out the track.The group used a similar formula on about half the tracks on the LP, giving the album and the band a distinctive sound right out of the box.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Beggar's Farm
Source: CD: This Was
Writer(s): Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
Parallels can be drawn between the early recordings of Jethro Tull and the American band Spirit. Both showed jazz influences that would be less prominent on later albums, but that helped both bands stand out from the pack on their respective debut LPs. An example of this can be heard on the track Beggar's Farm, an Ian Anderson tune from the first Jethro Tull album This Was.
Artist: Rod Stewart
Title: Man Of Constant Sorrow
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Trad., arr. Rod Stewart
Label: Mercury
Year: 1969
Rod Stewart's debut solo album was not a major seller when it was first released in 1969, despite generally favorable reviews from the rock press. One of the stronger tracks on the album was his arrangement of the old folk song Man Of Constant Sorrow. The track was also issued as the B side of the album's second single three years after the LP itself had been released.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: Sugar The Road
Source: LP: Cricklewood Green
Writer(s): Alvin Lee
Label: Deram
Year: 1970
Ten Years After's fourth LP, Cricklewood Green, was the band's first release following their appearance at Woodstock, and by all accounts they made the best of the situation with what is generally considered to be their best studio album. In addition to progressive FM radio favorites Love Like A Man and 50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain, the album contains several tunes that show the group's diversity, such as the LP's opening track, Sugar The Road.
Artist: Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen
Title: Back To Tennessee
Source: LP: Lost In The Ozone
Writer(s): Farlow/Frayne
Label: Paramount
Year: 1971
You would expect an album that starts with the country rocker Back To Tennessee and gets even more country after that to be the work of a bunch of good ol' Southern boys. And yet lead vocalist and keyboardist George Frayne was actually from Boise, Idaho. His chief collaborator and writer of most of the band's original material, Billy C. Farlowe, on the other hand, hailed from Decatur, Alabama. The rest of the band's membership came from all over the place, including guitarists John Tichy (St. Louis) and Bill Kirchen (Bridgeport, Connecticut, saxophonist/fiddler Andy Stein (New York City), bassist "Buffalo" Bruce Barlow (Oxnard, California), drummer Lance Dickerson (Livonia, Michigan) and pedal steel guitarist and Steve "The West Virginia Creeper" Davis, from Charleston, West Virginia. The band, taking its name from early 1950s black and white film serials, was formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1967 and spend several years playing local bars before migrating to Berkeley, California, where they soon got a contract with the newly-formed Paramount Records. Their debut LP, Lost In The Ozone, included their best known song, a cover of Charlie Ryan's 1955 hit Hot Rod Lincoln, along with other fan favorites like Seeds and Stems (Again) and the aforemention title track. After three more albums for Paramount, they switched labels to Warner Brothers, where they remained until the group disbanded in 1976.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: One More Saturday Night
Source: CD: Skeletons From The Closet (originally released on LP: Europe '72)
Writer: Bob Weir
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1972
In 1972 Warner Brothers gave all of the members of the Grateful Dead the opportunity to record solo albums. Three of the Dead, Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart and Bob Weir, took them up on the offer. The Weir album was called Ace, and, unlike the other two albums, featured virtually the entire Grateful Dead lineup (the sole exception being Ron "Pigpen" McKernan). Most of the songs on Ace became staples of the Dead's live performances. A live version of one of those songs, One More Saturday Night, was included on the band's second live album, Europe '72, and that performance was included on the group's first anthology album, Skeletons From The Closet.
Artist: Eagles
Title: Certain Kind Of Fool/Doolin-Dalton/Outlaw Man
Source: LP: Desperado
Writer(s): Meisner/Henley/Frey/Souther/Browne/Blue
Label: Asylum
Year: 1973
The original Eagles lineup of Glenn Frey (guitars, vocals), Don Henley (drums, vocals), Bernie Leadon (guitars, vocals), and Randy Meisner (bass guitar, vocals) only recorded two albums before adding guitarist Don Felder to the band. The second of those was Desperado. Released in 1973, Desperado was a concept album drawing parallels between Wild West gunfighters and 70s rock musicians. The idea came out of a jam session featuring Frey, Henley, Jackson Browne and JD Souther that resulted in the creation of Doolin-Dalton, a piece that keeps popping up in parts throughout the album. The song was based on an outlaw gang based in the Oklahoma Territory in the late 1800s. From there, Henley and Frey came up with the album's title track, while other members such as Meisner (along with Frey and Henley) contributed songs like Certain Kind Of Fool. The only song on Desperado not penned by band members was Outlaw Man, which was written by Eagles' label mate David Blue and was released as the second single from the album (with Certain Kind Of Fool on the B side).
Artist: Jeff Beck
Title: You Know What I Mean/She's A Woman
Source: CD: Blow By Blow
Writer(s): Beck/Middleton/Lennon/McCartney
Label: Epic
Year: 1975
After dissolving the group Beck, Bogert and Appice in 1973, guitarist Jeff Beck spent the next year supporting various other musicians both on stage and in the studio before going to work on what would become his most commercially successful solo album, Blow By Blow. Produced by George Martin, the all-instrumental album opens with You Know What I Mean, a tune written by Beck and keyboardist Max Middleton, and segues into a rather unique cover version of Paul McCartney's She's A Woman, a hit for the Beatles in early 1965.
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: Deep Purple
Title: Place In Line
Source: Japanese import CD: Who Do We Think We Are
Writer(s): Blackmore/Gillan/Glover/Lord/Paice
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1973
The final album from the second, and most popular Deep Purple lineup was 1973's Who Do We Think We Are. The album title was a direct response to critics that had voiced the opinion that the band was getting a bit too big for their britches. Despite internal problems that would lead to the departure of vocalist Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover shortly after the album's completion, Who Do We Think We Are was one of the band's most popular albums. Although Deep Purple was not usually considered a blues-rock band, the song Place In Line certainly fits in with other examples of the genre, starting off with a plodding Muddy Waters kind of beat, then transitioning to a faster boogie for the remainder of the piece.
Artist: Elton John
Title: Honky Cat
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): John/Taupin
Label: Uni
Year: 1972
Elton John hit the top of the US charts with his fifth LP, Honky Chateau, in 1972. It was the first of seven consecutive #1 albums for the singer/songwriter and included two major hit singles. The second of these was the album's opening track, Honky Cat, which made the top 10 that same year, despite having a length of over five minutes at a time when most radio stations still observed the three and a half minute standard for top 40 singles.
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