https://exchange.prx.org/p/524982
The first half of this week's show takes us from the late 60s into the early 70s, one year at a time. The second half is more free-form in nature. Take your choice (the correct answer being "both").
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Title: When The Levee Breaks
Source: CD: Led Zeppelin IV
Writer(s): Page/Plant/Bonham/Jones/Douglas
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1971
Although it sounds like it could have been written about Hurricane Katrina, When The Levee Breaks, the last song on the fourth Led Zeppelin LP, was actually inspired by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, that saw levees along the river break in over 145 places, leaving over 700,000 people homeless. 29-year-old Lizzie Douglas, was living with her family near Walls, Mississippi, when the levee there broke, and two years later, using her stage name of Memphis Minnie recorded the original version of When The Levee Breaks with her then-partner Kansas Joe McCoy. In 1971 Led Zeppelin used Douglas's lyrics as the basis for their own, musically different version of When The Levee Breaks. The track is instantly identifiable by John Bonham's distinctive opening drum beat, which has been heavily sampled by various hip-hop artists over the years.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Manic Depression
Source: CD: The Ultimate Experience (originally released on LP: Are You Experienced?)
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
After miraculously surviving being shot point blank in the head (and then bayoneted in the back for good measure) in the Korean War (and receiving a Silver Star), my dad became somewhat of a minor celebrity in the early 50s, appearing on a handful of TV and radio game shows as a kind of poster boy for the Air Force. One result of this series of events was that he was able to indulge his fascination with a new technology that had been developed by the Germans during WWII: magnetic recording tape. He used his prize winnings to buy a Webcor tape recorder, which in turn led to me becoming interested in recording technology at an early age (I distinctly remember being punished for playing with "Daddy's tape recorder" without permission on more than one occasion). He did not receive another overseas assignment until 1967, when he was transferred to Weisbaden, Germany. As was the usual practice at the time, he went there a month or so before the rest of the family, and during his alone time he (on a whim, apparently) went in on a Lotto ticket with a co-worker and won enough to buy an Akai X-355 stereo tape recorder from a fellow serviceman who was being transferred out and did not want to (or couldn't afford to) pay the shipping costs of the rather heavy machine.The Akai was pretty much the state of the art in home audio technology at the time. The problem was that we did not have a stereo system to hook it into, so he bought a set of Koss headphones to go with it. Of course all of his old tapes were in storage (along with the old Webcor) back in Denver, so I decided that this would be a good time to start spending my allowance money on pre-recorded reel-to-reel tapes, the first of which was Are You Experienced by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The Akai had an auto-reverse system and I would lie on the couch with the headphones on to go to sleep every night listening to songs like Manic Depression. Is it any wonder I turned out like I did?
Artist: Deep Purple
Title: And The Address
Source: LP: Shades Of Deep Purple
Writer(s): Blackmore/Lord
Label: Tetragrammaton
Year: 1968
And The Address was, by all accounts, the very first Deep Purple song written by members of the band. In fact, the instrumental piece, which appeared as the opening track on the 1968 LP Shades Of Deep Purple, was actually written before Deep Purple itself was formed. Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore had answered an ad placed by Chris Curtis, a local musician who was trying to put together something called Roundabout, which would feature a rotating set of musicians on a circular stage, with Curtis himself fronting each group. The idea soon fell apart, but the first two people he recruited, Blackmore and Lord, decided to keep working together following Curtis's departure, eventually adding vocalist Rod Evans, bassist Nicky Simper and drummer Ian Paice to fill out the band's original lineup. After securing a record deal, the band went to work on their debut LP, with And The Address being the first song they started to record. The song became the band's set opener for much of 1968, until it was replaced by another instrumental called Wring That Neck (aka Hard Road), which appeared on the band's second LP, The Book Of Taliesyn. Since then, And The Address has hardly ever been played live.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: Stoned Woman/Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Source: LP: Ssssh!
Writer(s): Lee/Williamson
Label: Deram
Year: 1969
Alvin Lee's band Ten Years After already had three albums out by the time they made a huge splash at Woodstock in 1969. Their fourth LP, Ssssh! was released that same year, and was soon climbing the album charts, despite getting little airplay on US radio stations. The best known track was a hard rocking version of the Sonny Boy Williamson blues classic Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, which had already been covered by several rock bands. Unlike previous versions, the TYA Schoolgirl was built around a driving repeated bass line and featured an extended instrumental section that stayed on the main chord rather than following the song's regular progression. The track was preceeded on the LP by a Lee composition, Stoned Woman, which leads into Schoolgirl without a break between songs.
Artist: Illinois Speed Press
Title: Country Dumplin'
Source: LP: Duet
Writer(s): Kal David
Label: Columbia
Year: 1969
In 1969, Columbia Records simultaneously released albums from four bands from the Chicago area, marketing them as the "Chicago Sound". The strategy was only slightly more successful than M-G-M's "Boss-Town Sound" campaign the year before, with only one of the albums, the double-LP set Chicago Transit Authority, becoming a bonifide hit record. The Illinois Speed Press, on the other hand, was only around long enough to make two albums, and the second one saw the group, led by Paul Cotton and Kal David, move away from Chicago, both physically and musically, toward a more California-oriented country-rock sound. Not long after the second LP, Duet (which was basically just Cotton and David accompanied by studio musicians), Kal David left to co-found the Fabulous Rhinestones. Meanwhile Paul Cotton accepted an invitation to join Poco, and that was it for Illinois Speed Press.
Artist: Doobie Brothers
Title: The Master
Source: LP: The Doobie Brothers
Writer(s): Tom Johnston
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1971
Some bands start off with a bang. The Doobie Brothers, however, began the recording career with a whimper. Their first album did not sell well, despite the band having built up a following among the free-spirited crowd in the San Francisco Bay area. Part of the problem is that the album itself bore little resemblance to the band's live shows. Most of the songs were a subdued mix of folk, rock and country, handicapped by muddy production, and the LP died a quick death. The Doobies themselves, however, we not finished. In fact, the Doobie Brothers eventually became one of the iconic rock bands of the 70s, thanks in no small part to the songwriting skills of Tom Johnston and Patrick Simmons. Johnston's religious beliefs fuel The Master, one of the more notable tracks from that first Doobie Brothers album.
Artist: Mahogany Rush
Title: Makin' My Wave
Source: LP: Child Of The Novelty
Writer(s): Frank Marino
Label: 20th Century
Year: 1974
The second Mahogany Rush album saw the addition of keyboardist Phil Bech (who had played on one track on the band's first LP) as an official member. Still, the band mostly functioned as a power trio in the mold of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, as can be heard on tracks like Makin' My Wave.
Artist: Wishbone Ash
Title: Queen Of Torture
Source: 45 RPM single B side (originally released on LP: Wishbone Ash)
Writer: Upton/Turner/Turner/Powell
Label: Decca
Year: 1970
One of the first bands to use dual lead guitars was Wishbone Ash. When the original guitarist of the band known as the Empty Vessels had to leave auditions were held, but the two remaining members, bassist Martin Turner and drummer Steve Upton, couldn't decide between the two finalists so they kept both of them, or so the story goes. Queen Of Torture, from their 1969 debut album, shows just how well the styles of guitarists Andy Powell and Ted Turner meshed.
Artist: Black Sabbath
Title: Rat Salad
Source: CD: Paranoid
Writer(s): Iommi/Osborne/Butler/Ward
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1970
Rat Salad, the only instrumental on Black Sabbath's second album, Paranoid, has to be, with one exception, the rock track with the shortest drum solo on record. Ironically, the song was written specifically for drummer Bill Ward to do a 45 minute long solo when the band was playing eight and three-quarter hour long gigs in Europe in their early days. Nobody knows for sure where the title Rat Salad came from, but it may have been in reference to the state of Ward's hair at the end of one of those solos.
Artist: Harvey Mandel
Title: Long Wait
Source: LP: Cristo Redentor
Writer(s): Mandel/Goldberg
Label: Philips
Year: 1968
Harvey Mandel first came to national attention as the guitarist on Stand Back! Here Comes Charlie Musselwhite's South Side Band, one of the first blues albums to be also targeted to rock listeners. One of the standout tracks on the album was Christo Redemptor, which has come to be considered Musselwhite's signature song. Not long after the album was released, Mandel moved to San Francisco, performing regularly at the Matrix club and often jamming with fellow guitarists Elvin Bishop and Jerry Garcia. A chance meeting with local disc jockey Abe "Voco" Kesh led to Mandel's first solo LP, released in 1968. The album, made up entirely of instrumentals like the blues-based Long Wait, led to Mandel being invited to replace Henry Vestine in Canned Heat the following year.
Artist: Steely Dan
Title: Everything You Did
Source: CD: The Royal Scam
Writer(s): Becker/Fagan
Label: MCA
Year: 1976
There's a saying: "never cheat on a songwriter, because they will get even by writing a song about it". Everything You Did, from the Steely Dan album The Royal Scam, is proof that the saying is true. The song itself is actually rather creepy.
Artist: Stealer's Wheel
Title: Stuck In The Middle With You
Source: 45 RPM single (stereo promo copy)
Writer(s): Egan/Rafferty
Label: A&M
Year: 1973
Stealer's Wheel was formed in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland by former schoolmates Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty in 1972. By the time their first album was released, however, Rafferty had already left the group for a solo career. The single Stuck In The Middle With You was such as success, however, that Rafferty was persuaded to rejoin the group. They were never able to duplicate the success of that first single, however, and by 1975 Stealer's Wheel had ceased to exist. Rafferty, once again a solo artist, would have a huge hit in 1978 with the song Baker Street.
Artist: Janis Joplin
Title: Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)
Source: LP: Super Rock (originally released on LP: I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama)
Writer: Ragavoy/Taylor
Label: Columbia
Year: 1969
A glance through the various playlists on this blog makes one thing abundantly clear: the psychedelic era was a time for bands, as opposed to individual stars. The music industry itself, however, tends to favor the single artist. Perhaps this is because it is easier to market (cynics would say exploit) an individual artist than a collective of musicians. In the case of Janis Joplin, people in the industry managed to convince her that her fellow members of Big Brother and the Holding Company were holding her back due to their lack of musicianship. A listen to her first album without her old bandmates puts the lie to that argument. Although the Kozmic Blues Band may indeed have had greater expertise as individual musicians than Big Brother, the energy that had electrified audiences at the Monterey Pop Festival and at various San Francisco ballrooms was just not there, and the album is generally considered somewhat limp in comparison to Cheap Thrills. The opening (and some would say best) track on the album is Try (Just A Little Bit Harder). While not a bad song, the recording just doesn't have the magic of a Piece of My Heart or Ball and Chain, despite a strong vocal performance by Joplin herself.
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