https://exchange.prx.org/p/537021
This week Rockin' in the Days of Confusion goes metaphysical for awhile, and then hits you with a chance to win a copy of the 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of The Grateful Dead From The Mars Hotel (you'll have to listen to the show to find out how that works). And then we go metaphysical again with a Mike Oldfield piece that is considered by many to be even better than his Tubular Bells before finishing up with some old favorites from the early 1970s.
Artist: Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young
Title: déjà vu
Source: LP: déjà vu
Writer(s): David Crosby
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1970
One of the biggest selling albums in the history of rock music, Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young's déjà vu was also one of the most difficult and time-consuming albums ever made. It is estimated that the album, which to date has sold over 8 million copies, took around 800 hours of studio time to record. Most of the tracks were recorded as solo tracks by their respective songwriters, with the other members making whatever contributions were called for. The album also features several guest musicians (including John Sebastian, who plays harmonica on the title track), as well as drummer Dallas Taylor and bassist Greg Reeves, whose names appear in slightly smaller font on the front cover of the album.
Artist: David Bowie
Title: Changes
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue originally released on LP: Hunky Dory)
Writer(s): David Bowie
Label: RCA
Year: 1971
Sometimes a seemingly innocous little song will turn out to be something far more than it started out to be. Such is the case with Changes, one of the most recognizable songs of the 20th century. Originally appearing on the 1971 album Hunky Dory and released as a single in 1972, Changes, according to Bowie, started off as a parody of a nightclub song, "a kind of throwaway", that featured Bowie himself on saxophone, with strings provided by Mick Ronson. Rick Wakeman's keyboards also feature prominently in the recording. The song was Bowie's first North American release on the RCA Victor label (although Mercury had released The Man Who Sold The World two years previously, the record had gone nowhere at the time). Changes is often taken as a statement of artistic intent, as Bowie was constantly reinventing himself throughout his career. Surprisingly, Changes did not make the British charts until its re-release following Bowie's death in 2016.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: Circles
Source: CD: Cricklewood Green
Writer: Alvin Lee
Label: Chrysalis (original label: Deram)
Year: 1970
Cricklewood Green continued the development of Ten Years After away from its blues roots and toward a more progressive rock sound that would ultimately lead them to their only top 40 hit, I'd Love To Change The World. That song, however, was still a couple albums in the future when Cricklewood Green was released in 1970. The seldom-heard Circles is basically an acoustic solo number from Alvin Lee.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: Unbroken Chain
Source: CD: Grateful Dead From The Mars Hotel
Writer(s): Lesh/Petersen
Label: Rhino (original label: Grateful Dead)
Year: 1974
As of 1974 the only Grateful Dead studio recording with bassist Phil Lesh on lead vocal was Box Of Rain, from the 1970 LP American Beauty. On 1974's Grateful Dead From The Mars Hotel, however, he provided two more, both co-written by poet Bobby Petersen. Unbroken Chain, the album's longest track, includes a jam section that showcases Jerry Garcia's guitar work and Brent Mydland's keyboards. The song was not included in the band's live repertoire, however, prompting Deadheads to circulate the story that it was being saved for the band's final concert. Unbroken Chain finally did get added to the setlist in 1995, and was indeed included on what turned out to be Jerry Garcia's last performance with the band on July 5th of that year.
Artist: Mike Oldfield
Title: Ommadawn
Source: LP: Ommadawn
Writer(s): Mike Oldfield
Label: Virgin
Year: 1975
After 1974's Hergest Ridge failed to live up to the expectations generated by his 1973 album Tubular Bells, multi-instrumentalist composer Mike Oldfield vowed to create a third album that was, in his words "worthwhile and successful". He convinced the people at Virgin Records to set up a 24-track studio in his home in Kington, a town with a population of about 2000 at the time near the Welsh border. Unfortunately, the label provided Oldfield with substandard recording tape that began to shed its oxide layer as overdubs were added. He ended up, after several months of recording, having to start the entire project over from scratch, but soon saw it as an opportunity to fine tune his ideas and create what has come to be regarded as a masterpiece, Ommadawn. Due to space limitations at The Beacon (as his home studio was known), Oldfield had to go back to at The Manor in Shipton-on-Cherwell, Oxfordshire, where Tubular Bells and Hergest Ridge had been recorded, to record the African Drums played by Julian Bahula, Ernest Mothle, Lucky Ranku, and Eddie Tatane. Other musicians who participated in the making of Ommadawn include Terry Oldfield on panpipes, Pierre Moerlen on timpani, David Strange on cello, Don Blakeson on trumpet, William Murry on percussion, Paddy Moloney on Uilleann pipes and "Herbie" on Northumbrian smallpipes. Vocals were provided by Sally Oldfield, Bridget St. John and Clodagh Simonds, who came up with the album title itself as well as providing the deliberately nonsensical Irish lyrics used in the piece. Oldfield himself provided most of the instrumentation, including electric and acoustic guitars and basses (including 12-string guitar and classical guitar), mandolin, bouzouki, banjo, harp, spinet, grand piano, Farfisa & Lowrey organs, Solina string ensemble, ARP 2600 synthesizer, glockenspiel, bodhran and assorted percussion.
Artist: Spirit
Title: Space Child/When I Touch You
Source: CD: Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus
Writer(s): Locke/Ferguson
Label: Epic/Legacy
Year: 1970
Spirit keyboardist John Locke used a combination of piano, organ and synthesizers (then a still-new technology) to set the mood for the entire Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus recording sessions with his instrumental piece Space Child. The tune starts with a rolling piano riff that gives bassist Mark Andes a rare opportunity to carry the melody line before switching to a jazzier tempo that manages to seamlessly transition from a waltz tempo to straight time without anyone noticing. After a short reprise of the tune's opening riff the track segues into Jay Ferguson's When I Touch You, a song that manages to be light and heavy at the same time.
Artist: Neil Young/Crazy Horse
Title: Cinnamon Girl
Source: CD: Decade (originally released on LP: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere)
Writer(s): Neil Young
Label: Reprise
Year: 1969
My favorite Neil Young song has always been Cinnamon Girl. I suspect this is because Sunn, the band I was in the summer after I graduated from high school, used a re-arranged version of the song as our show opener (imagine Cinnamon Girl played like I Can See For Miles and you get a general idea of how it sounded). If we had ever recorded an album, we probably would have used that arrangement as our first single. I finally got to see Neil Young perform the song live (from the 16th row even) with Booker T. and the MGs as his stage band in the mid-1990s. It was worth the wait.
Artist: Santana
Title: Everybody's Everything
Source: 45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s): Santana/Moss/Brown
Label: Columbia
Year: 1971
Santana's third album, released in 1971, was called simply Santana. The problem is, their first album was also called Santana. The guitar solo on Everybody's Everything, by the way, is not by Carlos Santana. Rather it was performed by the then 17-year-old Neal Schon, who, along with keyboardist Greg Rolie would leave the band the following year to form Journey.
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