https://exchange.prx.org/p/530613
Once again we take a musical journey through the years, this time from 1970 through 1976, followed by a set of tunes from the early part of the decade. The show starts and ends, however, in the late 60s with a pair of blues-oriented tunes.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: Spoonful
Source: European import CD: Ten Years After
Writer(s): Willie Dixon
Label: Deram
Year: 1967
The late 1960s saw the rise of a British blues-rock scene that brought fame to Peter Green, Dave Edmunds and other talented guitarists. One of the first bands to release an album in this sub-genre was Ten Years After, led by Alvin Lee. Their debut LP, released in 1967, included several cover tunes, including Spoonful, which had been recorded the previous year by Cream (in studio form), and would gain popularity as a live track in 1968.
Artist: Matthews' Southern Comfort
Title: Woodstock
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Joni Mitchell
Label: Decca
Year: 1971
Some people prefer the original Joni Mitchell version of Woodstock, while others favor Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's harder rocking version. My own favorite is the one released by Matthews' Southern Comfort in March of 1970. The record almost didn't get released as a single at all. The band's British label, MCA, only agreed to do so when it became apparent that the CSN&Y version was going nowhere on the British charts. The Matthews's Southern Comfort version of Woodstock went to the top of the British charts, despite a lack of promotional support from the label. In November the song was released in the US, eventually making it to the #23 spot in early 1971. By that time, however, the band itself had split up, mainly due to bandleader Ian Matthews' inability to cope with the trappings of having a #1 hit single. Matthews had been a founding member of Fairport Convention, but had left the group in 1969 to concentrate on his songwriting and establishing himself as a solo artist. His first solo album was named Matthews' Southern Comfort, a name he used for the band he formed to record two more albums, Second Spring and Later That Same Year. Woodstock was originally slated to appear on Later That Same Year, but was instead issued separately as a single, a common practice in the UK.
Artist: Joni Mitchell
Title: California
Source: LP: Blue
Writer(s): Joni Mitchell
Label: Reprise
Year: 1971
In early spring of 1970 Joni Mitchell, who had been living in California since 1967, decided to take a break from performing and go visit Europe for a while. It wasn't long, however, before she started longing for the creative atmosphere she had experience while living in Laurel Canyon with Graham Nash. She described how she felt in the song California, where she refers to Paris in particular as " too old and cold and settled in its ways". Mitchell recorded the song for her 1971 album Blue, where it became the second single released from that album. Blue has since come to be recognized as one of the greatest albums of all time and has made several "best of" lists, including Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, where it currently ranks #3 (the highest by a female artist), and was chosen by NPR in 2017 as the greatest album of all time made by a woman.
Artist: Who
Title: Bargain (live)
Source: LP: Who's Missing
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: MCA
Year: Recorded 1972, released 1985
Although the Who did not release any albums in 1972, they were considered by many to be the best live rock band in the world that year. Lots of their live stuff got bootlegged over the years, but the official release of the live version of Bargain, a tune from the 1971 album Who's Next, had to wait until 1985, when it was included on a compilation album called Who's Missing.
Artist: Black Oak Arkansas
Title: Jim Dandy
Source: CD: Hot & Nasty: The Best Of Black Oak Arkansas (originally released on LP: High On The Hog)
Writer(s): Lincoln Chase
Label: Rhini (original label: Atco)
Year: 1973
My first exposure to Black Oak Arkansas was at a Grand Funk Railroad concert in August of 1971. I had literally arrived on the campus of Southwestern University in Weatherford Oklahoma the night before the concert, having hitchhiked there from New Mexico. On arrival I soon learned that my bandmates DeWayne and Mike, whose dorm room I was crashing in, already had tickets for the concert in Norman, Oklahoma. They invited me to come along, assuring me that I could easily score tickets at the gate. As it turns out they were right, but by the time we got there the only tickets left were bleacher seats. Of course, the rest of the group that made the drive to Norman all had floor tickets, so I ended up sitting by myself up in the nosebleed section for the opening act, a group I had never heard of called Black Oak Arkansas. I decided that, for the next 45 minutes or so, I would be a reviewer, and started analyzing this new band one song at a time. To be honest, I wasn't all that impressed at first, but found each successive song to be a little bit better than the one before it. By the time the band had finished their set, I was electrified (literally, since the last song was called The Day Electricity Came To Arkansas). I eventually bought a copy of the album Black Oak Arkansas, and was pleased to discover that the songs were in the exact same order on the LP as I had first heard them in concert. Over the years I continued to follow the band's progress, and was happy to hear, in 1973, their remake of an old LaVerne Baker song, Jim Dandy, on the local AM radio station. In fact, I went out and bought a copy of the 45 RPM single (which has since been replaced with a less scratchy copy and even more recently by a CD copy of the album it was taken from, High On The Hog).
Artist: Eric Clapton
Title: I Shot The Sheriff
Source: CD: The Best Of Eric Clapton (originally released on LP: 461 Ocean Boulevard)
Writer(s): Bob Marley
Label: Polydor/Chronicles (original label: Atco)
Year: 1974
Following the breakup of Derek And The Dominos, guitarist Eric Clapton became a bit of a recluse for several years, dealing with a heroin addiction. Finally, in 1974, he resurfaced with his second solo album, 461 Ocean Boulevard. The best known track from the album was a cover of Bob Marley's I Shot The Sheriff, which was a surprise top 40 hit that helped popularize reggae music in Britain and the United States and gave Clapton his only #1 hit single.
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Title: Houses Of The Holy
Source: LP: Physical Graffiti
Writer(s): Page/Plant
Label: Swan Song
Year: 1975
1975 saw the release of Led Zeppelin's first double LP, Physical Graffiti. It was also the debut of Zep's own record label, Swan Song. The story I head is that the band began recording tracks for a new album in 1974, but soon realized that they had come up with more music than could be fit on a standard vinyl LP. This was actually becoming a habit for the band, which had no less than seven unreleased tracks recorded for their three previous albums sitting on the shelf. It was decided that, rather than leave yet another set of tunes on the shelf, they would combine the eight new tracks (including Ten Years Gone) with the seven older tracks to create a double LP. One of the previously unreleased tracks was originally intended to be the title track of their previous LP, Houses Of The Holy. Although the song was ultimately left off that album in favor of songs like Dancing Days, it has become one of Led Zeppelin's most (over)played tracks on classic rock radio.
Artist: Queen
Title: You And I
Source: CD: A Day At The Races
Writer(s): John Deacon
Label: Hollywood (original US label: Elektra)
Year: 1976
Queen bassist John Deacon's songwriting got off to a slow start, with none of his songs appearing on the band's first two albums, and only one on each of the next three. His tune from the fifth Queen album, A Day At The Races, was You And I, a piano-driven piece that Deacon played acoustic guitar on. The song was also released as the B side of the album's second single, but was never performed live by the band.
Artist: Lou Reed
Title: Wild Child
Source: LP: Lou Reed
Writer(s): Lou Reed
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1972
Lou Reed's first album after leaving the Velvet Underground was made up mostly of new recordings of songs the VU had already recorded but not released, using British session musicians and members of other bands such as Yes. Familiar names on songs such as Wild Child include Steve Howe and Caleb Quaye on guitars and Rick Wakeman on piano.
Artist: Nilsson
Title: Down
Source: LP: Nilsson Schmilsson
Writer(s): Harry Nilsson
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1971
Down was the B side of the third single released from Nilsson's most successful LP, Nilsson Schmilsson. Although not his best known song by any means, it is a solid example of Nilsson's songwriting ability.
Artist: Eric Burdon And War
Title: Spill The Wine
Source: LP: Eric Burdon Declares War
Writer(s): Burdon/Miller/Scott/Dickerson/Jordan/Brown/Allen/Oskar
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1970
After the second version of the Animals disbanded in late 1969, vocalist Eric Burdon, who was by then living in California, decided to pursue his interest in American soul music by hooking up with an L.A. band called War. He released his first album with the group, Eric Burdon Declares War, in 1970. The album included Spill The Wine, which would be the first of several hits for War in the 1970s. The song was inspired by keyboardist Lonnie Jordan's accidentally spilling wine on a mixing board, although the lyrics are far more fanciful, with Burdon referring to himself as an "overfed long-haired leaping gnome" in the song's opening monologue. The song turned out to be a major hit, going into the top 5 in both the US and Canada.
Artist: Joe Cocker
Title: High Time We Went
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Cocker/Stainton
Label: A&M
Year: 1971
Joe Cocker rose to popularity by doing energetic versions of other artists songs such as Dave Mason's Feelin' Alright, Leon Russel's Delta Lady and Lennon & McCartney's With A Little Help From My Friends. In 1971 Cocker and keyboardist Chris Stainton decided it was high time they started writing their own material, and released a single called Black-Eyed Blues. It wasn't long, however, before disc jockeys began playing the B side, High Time We Went, making it Cocker's first original composition to make the US top 40. Although the song charted in half a dozen countries, it stiffed in his native UK.
Artist: Al Kooper/Stephen Stills/Harvey Brooks/Eddie Hoh
Title: Harvey's Tune
Source: CD: Super Session
Writer(s): Harvey Brooks
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1968
Probably the most overlooked track on the classic Super Session LP is the album's closer, a two-minute instrumental called Harvey's Tune. The piece was written by bassist Harvey Brooks, who, along with Mike Bloomfield, had been a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and later, the Electric Flag.
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