https://exchange.prx.org/p/541158
This is another of those weeks where I had no choice but to let the show itself determine where it was going. And sure enough, it went to some interesting places, including a visit to a High Priestess and a Fire Maiden (connected by Helen Wheels) and a look at Rock 'n' Roll as seen by two brothers. There's also a rare Jim Capaldi lead vocal on a Traffic tune, and a surprisingly gentle finish from Grand Funk Railroad.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: I'd Love To Change The World
Source: LP: A Space In Time
Writer(s): Alvin Lee
Label: Columbia
Year: 1971
Although a favorite with the American counterculture since their appearance at Woodstock, Ten Years After, after five albums, had still not been able to crack the US top 40 charts. That changed in 1971 when the band switched labels from Deram to Columbia and released A Space In Time in 1971. I'd Love To Change The World, the first single released from the album, went into the top 10 in Canada and became the band's only US top 40 hit. It was also, at the time, one of the only songs to get extensive airplay on both AM and FM.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Reasons For Waiting
Source: CD: Stand Up
Writer: Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol (original US label: Reprise)
Year: 1969
Strictly speaking, Reasons For Waiting is not a Jethro Tull piece. Rather, it is an Ian Anderson solo work with orchestration. This was quite a departure from the first Tull album, which was (like most debut albums) made up of songs already in the group's live performance repertoire (the exception being Mick Abrahams's Move On Along, which in addition to having Abrahams on lead vocals, added a horn section).
Artist: Elton John
Title: Your Song
Source: Mono 45 RPM single
Writer(s): John/Taupin
Label: Uni
Year: 1970
One story has it that Your Song, Elton John's first US hit, was originally intended to be a B side, but that American disc jockeys took it on themselves to play Your Song rather than Take Me To The Pilot. Whether that is the case or not, Your Song became a top 10 single in the US and established Elton John and Bernie Taupin as the premier writing team of the early 1970s.
Artist: Uriah Heep
Title: High Priestess (single edit?)
Source: British import CD: Salisbury (bonus track)
Writer(s): Ken Hensley
Label: Sanctuary/BMG
Year: 1971
Sometimes the people who compile reissue albums get things wrong. I believe this is one of those times. We have liner notes indicating that this track is the single edit of High Priestess released to help promote Uriah Heep's second LP, Salisbury. However, there is only a three second difference in the running times of this and the album version of High Priestess. Adding to the confusion is the fact that there is no record of High Priestess ever being released as a single in the UK in any form. There was, however, a US single released the same time as the Salisbury LP that ran a minute and a half shorter than the version heard here. Adding to the confusion is an Austrian single of High Priestess that was also released in 1971 and has the same running time as this version.
Artist: Paul McCartney And Wings
Title: Helen Wheels
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Paul McCartney
Label: Apple
Year: 1973
Like many Beatles singles, Paul McCartney And Wings' Helen Wheels was intended to be a standalone single, but one of the honchos at Capitol Records in the US decided to add it to the Band On The Run album, released the following month. At least this time they did it with McCartney and the band's knowledge and (somewhat reluctant) approval, and without deleting any of the other songs to make room for it.
Artist: Hot Tuna
Title: Song For The Fire Maiden
Source: LP: Yellow Fever
Writer(s): Kaukonen/Douglass
Label: Grunt
Year: 1975
Originally formed in 1969 as an offshoot of Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna started off as a mainly acoustic band doing mostly blues standards, and had performed as an opening act for the Airplane itself in 1970. In the early 1970s, with the Airplane winding down, Hot Tuna emerged as a fully electric band independent of the Airplane. In 1974 the band, which at that point consisted of guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, bassist Jack Casady and drummer Bob Steeler, decided that it would be "just fun to be loud" for a while, recording three albums in 1975-76 as a power trio. The second of these three was Yellow Fever. As can be heard on Song For The Fire Maiden, they certainly succeeded. The song was co-written by Greg Douglass, who had been a member of Country Weather (whose unreleased Fly To New York is heard often on our companion show, Stuck in the Psychedelic Era) and later toured with Hot Tuna.
Artist: Monty Python's Flying Circus
Title: Spanish Inquisition (part 2)
Source: LP: Another Monty Python Album
Writer(s): Monty Python
Label: Charisma
Year: 1971
Spanish Inquisition was a running gag from an early episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus. In the middle of an unrelated skit three figures dressed in red Cardinal's robes would appear out of nowhere with the tag line "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition" and then go into a short comedy bit. The sketches were rewritten for the 1971 LP Another Monty Python Album. This particular one features Michael Palin as Cardinal Ximénez, who is having trouble keeping his numbers straight.
Artist: James Gang
Title: Funk # 48
Source: CD: Yer Album
Writer: Walsh/Fox/Kriss
Label: MCA (original label: Bluesway)
Year: 1969
Cleveland's James Gang was one of the original power trios of the seventies. Although generally known as the starting place of Joe Walsh, the band was actually led by Jim Fox, one of the most underrated drummers in the history of rock. Fox, who was the only member to stay with the group through its many personnel changes over the years, shares lead vocals with Walsh on Funk # 48 from the band's debut album on ABC's Bluesway label (they moved over to the parent label for subsequent releases). Yer Album, incidentally, was the only rock LP ever issued on Bluesway .
Artist: Traffic
Title: Light Up Or Leave Me Alone
Source: CD: Smiling Phases (originally released on LP: The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys)
Writer(s): Jim Capaldi
Label: Island
Year: 1971
Jim Capaldi always wanted to be a front man. In fact, he was the lead vocalist and founder of his own band, the Sapphires, when he was just 14 years old. In 1963 he switched to drums to form the Hellions with guitarists Dave Mason and Gordon Jackson. The following year the Hellions got a gig backing up Tanya Day at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany, where he met Steve Winwood, who was staying at the same hotel as a member of the Spencer Davis Group. In 1965 Capaldi became the band's front man with the addition of Poli Palmer as the band's new drummer. Although the Hellions were a successful performing band, none of their four singles (including one in 1966 under the name Revolution) charted. Mason left the band that year and the remaining members recorded a few demos for Giorgio Gomelsky, but they were not released at the time. During this time Capaldi often sat in with Winwood, Mason and flautist Chris Wood for after-hours jam sessions at Birmingham's Elbow Club. In 1967 they officially formed Traffic, with Capaldi and Winwood co-writing the bulk of the band's material. After Winwood left Traffic to join Blind Faith, Capaldi, Mason and Wood tried to get a new band going with keyboardist Mick Weaver, but things didn't work out. In early 1970 Capaldi and Wood accepted Winwood's invitation to help with what was to be his debut solo album, but which ended up being a reformed Traffic's John Barleycorn Must Die. With the addition of drummer Jim Gordon on the album Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys, Capaldi finally got a chance to front the band on two songs, one of which, Light Up Or Leave Me Alone, he wrote without Winwood's assistance. For the remainder of his life, in addition to continuing to work with Winwood as a member of Traffic and later on his solo albums, Capaldi pursued a successful solo career, scoring several hits on the British charts. His biggest American hit was That's Love, which hit the #28 spot in 1983. Jim Capaldi died from stomach cancer in 2005 at age 60.
Artist: Santana
Title: Mother's Daughter
Source: CD: Abraxas
Writer: Gregg Rolie
Label: Columbia
Year: 1970
Carlos Santana once said that his original lineup was the best of the many bands named Santana. With talented songwriters such as keyboardist/vocalist Gregg Rolie in the band, it's hard to argue with that assessment. Rolie, of course, would go on to co-found Journey, but I try not to hold that against him.
Artist: Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young
Title: Woodstock
Source: CD: déjà vu
Writer(s): Joni Mitchell
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1970
It's somewhat ironic that the most famous song about the Woodstock Music and Art Festival was written by someone who was not even at the event. Joni Mitchell had been advised by her manager that she would be better off appearing on the Dick Cavett show that weekend, so she stayed in her New York City hotel room and watched televised reports of what was going on up at Max Yasgur's farm. Further inspiration came from her then-boyfried Graham Nash, who shared his firsthand experiences of the festival with Mitchell. The song was first released on the 1970 album Ladies Of The Canyon, and was made famous the same year when it was chosen to be the first single released from the Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young album déjà vu. The CSNY version peaked just outside of the Billboard top 10 in the US, but did not chart at all in the UK, prompting Fairport Convention co-founder Iain Matthews to release his own version of the song with his band Matthews Southern Comfort later that year that ended up going all the way to the #1 spot on the British charts.
Artist: Johnny Winter
Title: Rock And Roll Hoochie Coo
Source: European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Johnny Winter And)
Writer(s): Rick Derringer
Label: Sony Music (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1970
Athough best known as a solo Rick Derringer hit, Rock And Roll Hoochie Coo was originally recorded in 1970 by Johnny Winter for the album Johnny Winter And when Derringer was a member of Winter's band (also known as Johnny Winter And at that time). As can be heard here the arrangement on the earlier version is nearly identical to the hit version, the main differences being Winter's lead vocals and the presence of two lead guitarists in the band.
Artist: Edgar Winter's White Trash
Title: Keep Playin' That Rock 'N' Roll
Source: 45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s): Edgar Winter
Label: Epic
Year: 1972
Edgar Winter has often been accused of riding his brother Johnny's coattails to fame. Keep Playin' That Rock 'N' Roll, released by Edgar Winter's White Trash in 1972, is sort of an admission that that is exactly what happened.
Artist: Grand Funk Railroad
Title: I Can Feel Him In The Morning
Source: CD: Survival
Writer: Farner/Brewer
Label: Capitol
Year: 1971
In the late 1980s I met a woman from L.A who had been in high school the year Grand Funk Railroad's fourth studio LP came out. When she discovered that I still had my original copy of Survival she told me how an 8-track copy of that album got her through the summer of '71 when she was living with her mother in an apartment overlooking one of the hookers' corners on Hollywood Blvd. She said that whenever she was feeling overwhelmed by life she would draw inspiration from the song I Can Feel Him In The Morning. The tune, with its flowing beat and spiritual lyrics, was a departure from the loud, raw sound the band from Flint, Michigan was known for.
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