https://exchange.prx.org/p/524151
This week we have a full slate of relatively short songs. In fact, this week's show actually has more total tunes (15) than any previous edition of Rockin' in the Days of Confusion.
Artist: Who
Title: Amazing Journey
Source: British Import CD: Spirit Of Joy (originally released on LP: Tommy)
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: Polydor UK (original US label: Decca)
Year: 1969
After achieving major success in their native England with a series of hit singles in 1965-67, the Who began to concentrate more on their albums from 1968 on. The first of these concept albums was The Who Sell Out, released in December of 1967. The Who Sell Out was a collection of songs connected by faux radio spots and actual jingles from England's most popular pirate radio station, Radio London. After releasing a few more singles in 1968, the Who began work on their most ambitious project yet: the world's first rock opera. Tommy, released in 1969, was a double LP telling the story of a boy who, after being tramautized into becoming a blind deaf-mute, eventually emerges as a kind of messiah, only to have his followers ultimately abandon him. One of the early tracks on the album is Amazing Journey, describing Tommy's voyage into the recesses of his own mind in response to the traumatic event that results in his "deaf, dumb and blind" condition.
Artist: Love Sculpture
Title: The Stumble
Source: British import CD: Blues Helping
Writer(s): King/Thompson
Label: EMI (original US label: Rare Earth)
Year: 1968
Most people associate the name Dave Edmunds with his hit version of I Hear You Knockin' from the early 1970s. What many don't know, however, is that Edmunds was first and foremost a smokin' hot blues guitarist, as can be heard on the opening track of the first of two albums he recorded with bassist John Williams and drummer Congo Jones as Love Sculpture. Like most of the songs on Blues Helping, The Stumble is a cover of a blues classic, in this case written and originally recorded by Freddie King in 1961 and released as a single the following year.
Artist: It's A Beautiful Day
Title: Wasted Union Blues
Source: CD: It's A Beautiful Day
Writer(s): David LaFlamme
Label: San Francisco Sound (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1969
It's A Beautiful Day was founded in the mid-60s by classical violinist David LaFlamme. The group had a hard time lining up gigs at first and eventually hooked up with local impressario Matthew Katz, who had similar deals with Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape. What the members of IABD did not know at the time was that those other bands were desperately trying to sever all ties with Katz due to his heavy-handed management style. LaFlamme and company would soon find out just how bad a deal they had gotten into when Katz shipped them off to Seattle to be the resident band at his own "San Francisco Sound" club from late 1967 through most of 1968. The group was put up in the attic of a house that Katz owned and given a small allowance that barely put food on the table. To make matters worse, attendance at the club was dismal. Still, the adversity did inspire some of LaFlamme's most powerful songwriting, such as Wasted Union Blues from the group's debut LP, released in 1969.
Artist: Derek And The Dominos
Title: Anyday
Source: LP: Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs
Writer(s): Clapton/Whitlock
Label: Atco
Year: 1970
Derek And The Dominos was originally an attempt by Eric Clapton to remove himself from the solo spotlight and work in a larger group setting than he had with his previous bands, Cream and Blind Faith. Such was Clapton's stature, however, that even among talents like Jim Gordon, Carl Radle and Bobby Whitlock, Clapton was still the star. However, there was one unofficial member of the group whose own star was in ascendancy. Duane Allman, who had chosen to stick with his own group the Allman Brothers Band, nonetheless played on eleven of the fourteen tracks on Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs. His slide guitar work is especially noticeable on the title track and on the song Anyday, which remains one of the most popular songs on the album.
Artist: J.J. Cale
Title: Crazy Mama
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): J.J. Cale
Label: Shelter
Year: 1971
Oklahoma native John Weldon Cale first moved out to the west coast in 1964, where he found moderate success as a songwriter and landed a regular gig playing the Whisky a Go Go on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Around this time he started using the name J.J. Cale to avoid confusion with the New York songwriter/violist John Cale (later to be a founding member of the Velvet Underground). His records, however (including an early fast version of After Midnight) went nowhere and Cale returned to Tulsa in late 1967. Nearly three years later Cale was surprised to hear Eric Clapton's cover of After Midnight on the radio, and at the suggestion of a friend decided to record an entire album of his original compositions. That album, Naturally, was released on Leon Russell's Shelter label in 1971, and included a slowed-down version of After Midnight. The most popular song from Naturally, however turned out to be a song called Crazy Mama that was released as a single, peaking at #22 in 1972.
Artist: Graham Nash and David Crosby
Title: The Wall Song
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): David Crosby
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1972
Such was the popularity of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in the early 70s that each of the members, both as solo artists and in various combinations of two or three members, released albums in addition to official group recordings, all of which sold well. One such effort was the 1972 album by Graham Nash and David Crosby. One of the more notable tracks on the album is The Wall Song, featuring (in addition to Crosby and Nash) Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh and Bill Kreutzmann on guitar, bass and drums. The version heard here is the rare mono mix of The Wall Song, issued as a B side in 1972.
Artist: Electric Light Orchestra
Title: Queen Of The Hours
Source: 45 RPM single B side (originally released in UK on LP: The Harvest Bag)
Writer(s): Jeff Lynne
Label: United Artists (original UK label: Harvest)
Year: 1971
The first Electric Light Orchestra single to make the US charts was an edited version of Chuck Berry's Roll Over Beethoven from their 1973 album Electric Light Orchestra II. For the B side, however, they went back to the very first ELO song ever released. Queen Of The Hours had originally appeared in the UK on a compilation album called The Harvest Bag, released in November of 1971, and was included on ELO's debut LP the following month.
Artist: Joni Mitchell
Title: Car On A Hill
Source: LP: Court And Spark
Writer(s): Joni Mitchell
Label: Asylum
Year: 1974
Following the release of the album For The Roses in 1972, singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell decided to spend an entire year working on an album that would incorporate elements of jazz into her folk-rock style. To do that she recruited some of Los Angeles's top studio musicians, including members of the Crusaders and Tom Scott's L.A. Express and Wayne Perkins, who plays guitar on Car On A Hill. Court And Spark, released in 1974, became Mitchell's most successful album, and has appeared on several "best of" lists over the years.
Artist: Doobie Brothers
Title: Down In The Track
Source: CD: What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits
Writer(s): Tom Johnston
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1974
Down In The Track is one of the more straightforward rock 'n' roll tunes on the fourth Doobie Brothers album, What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits. In addition to band members Tom Johnston, Patrick Simmons, Tiran Porter, John Hartman and Michael Hossack, the recording features New Orleans pianist James Booker, known as the "Black Liberace" on piano.
Artist: Iggy And The Stooges
Title: Search And Destroy
Source: LP: Raw Power
Writer(s): Pop/Williamson
Label: Columbia
Year: 1973
Raw Power, the third album by the Stooges, saw the addition of James Williamson on guitar, with Ron Asheton moving over to bass to replace the departing Dave Alexander. Williamson also co-wrote all the songs on Raw Power with vocalist Iggy Pop. The album's opening track, Search And Destroy, has been called "an archetype for punk rock" and has been covered by numerous bands over the ensuing years.
Artist: Velvet Underground
Title: Rock & Roll
Source: LP: Loaded
Writer(s): Lou Reed
Label: Cotillion
Year: 1970
Lou Reed has said that the song Rock & Roll, from his last album with the Velvet Underground, Loaded, is somewhat autobiographical. In his liner notes for the box set Peel Slowly And See, Reed says "If I hadn't heard rock and roll on the radio, I would have had no idea there was life on this planet." The song has become one of Reed's signature songs over the years, but on Loaded the bulk of the work is done by Doug Yule, who played bass, organ, piano and lead guitar parts on the track.
Artist: David Bowie
Title: Rock 'n' Roll Suicide
Source: CD: The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
Writer(s): David Bowie
Label: Ryko (original label: RCA Victor)
Year: 1972
The final track of David Bowie's concept album The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, Rock 'N' Roll Suicide finds the title character an old washed-up rock star in a song that starts off quietly, then builds to a fitting climax for one of the most influential albums in rock history. According to Bowie, the piece was conceived in the French chanson tradition, with nods to Baudelaire and Jacques Brel in the lyrics. Although the song was never intended to be released as a single, the shirts at RCA apparently thought they knew better and issued one anyway (but only in the UK) in 1974, two years after the album itself came out; the record stalled out in the #22 spot, becoming Bowie's first single in three years to miss the UK top 20.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: You Gotta Move
Source: CD: Sticky Fingers
Writer(s): Fred McDowell
Label: Virgin/Rolling Stones
Year: 1971
Throughout their peak period of 1968-1972 the Rolling Stones made sure to include a cover of a classic blues tune on every one of the albums. Their entry for the 1971 album Sticky Fingers (the first on their own label) was You Gotta Move. Credited to Mississippi Fred McDowell on the album cover, the song is thought to possibly been co-written by Reverend Gary Davis, although documentation of the song itself is sparse. The Stones version features some nice slide guitar work from new member Mick Taylor.
Artist: James Gang
Title: There I Go Again
Source: CD: James Gang Rides Again
Writer(s): Joe Walsh
Label: MCA (original label: ABC)
Year: 1970
The two sides of James Gang Rides Again sound like two entirely different albums. As it turns out, this was somewhat intentional. According to bassist Dale Peters, guitarist Joe Walsh had written a set of acoustic tunes while the band was recording what would become side one of the album. Rather than try to hastily come up with another side's worth of tunes, the band decided just to let Walsh record the songs he had already written with a minimum of accompaniment. Among those tunes on side two of James Gang Rides Again is There I Go Again, a catchy number that features Walsh on both acoustic and (overdubbed) steel guitar.
Artist: Five Man Electrical Band
Title: Absolutely Right
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Les Emmerson
Label: Lionel
Year: 1971
Formed in Ottawa in 1963, the Staccatos had a string of Canadian hits from 1963 throught 1968. After their producer, Nick Venet, told the band that the name Staccatos sounded dated, the band rechristened themselves The Five Man Electric Band, releasing their first album under that name (including several tracks originally released as Staccatos singles) in 1969. The band switched labels and released the album Good-byes and Butterflies in 1970. The following year, the opening track from Good-byes and Butterflies became an international hit. Originally issued as a B side in October of 1970, Signs was re-released in February of 1971, and by summer was in the top 5 in both the US and Canada, as well as spending two weeks at #1 in Australia. The band followed it up with a song called Absolutely Right. Although the song made the top 10 in several US and Canadian cities, it only peaked at a disappointing #26 on the Billboard charts. After two more albums and several more singles, the Five Man Electrical Band finally disbanded in 1975.
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