https://exchange.prx.org/p/553750
It's another free-form week on Rockin' in the Days of Confusion, with 14 tracks from 13 artists, including a classic comedy bit from National Lampoon's Bill Murray and Christopher Guest and a double dose of Baltimore's Crack The Sky, from their first album. Most of the second set tunes are making their Rockin' in the Days of Confusion debut this week, including a Doobie Brothers B side that ended up being the original lineup's biggest hit and a Joni Mitchell tune that is now considered a Christmas standard.
Artist: Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina
Title: Your Mama Don't Dance
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Loggins/Messina
Label: Columbia
Year: 1972
Kenny Loggins was just 20 years old when he released the first of three singles for Snuff Garrett's Viva label in 1968. This led to a brief stint as guitarist for the "new, improved" Electric Prunes in 1969 before forming the band Gator Creek with fellow guitarist Mike Deasy, releasing one album on the Mercury label. In 1970 he met up with Jim Messina, who had become an independent record producer following his runs with Buffalo Springfield and Poco. The two of them began recording some of Loggin's tunes for a proposed Loggins solo LP that eventually turned into the first Loggins and Messina LP, officially titled Kenny Loggins with Jim Messina Sittin' In. The two began touring together to promote the album and soon decided to officially become a duo, releasing the album Loggins And Messina in 1972. The album included Your Mama Don't Dance, a tune that they wrote together that became their biggest hit single, going into the top 5 in early 1973.
Artist: Allman Brothers Band
Title: Hoochie Coochie Man
Source: CD: Idlewild South
Writer(s): Willie Dixon
Label: Mercury (original label: Atco)
Year: 1970
The second Allman Brothers Band album, Idlewild South, generally got better reviews than the group's debut LP, mostly because of shorter tracks and tighter arrangements, both of which appealed to the rock press. Their version of Willie Dixon's Hoochie Coochie Man, for instance, actually comes in at less than five minutes. The band's next album, Live At The Fillmore East, proved to be the Allman's commercial breakthrough, however; the fact that the album is made up almost entirely of long jams with extended solos from guitarists Duane Allman and Dickie Betts and keyboardist Gregg Allman only goes to show that sometimes what the public wants is not the same thing as what the critics think they should.
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: James Gang
Title: Woman
Source: CD: James Gang Rides Again
Writer: Fox/Peters/Walsh
Label: MCA (original label: ABC)
Year: 1970
During my senior year of high school I often found myself hanging out at this sort of coffee house in Alamogordo, NM, whose name I have long since forgotten. The place had a room with an old console stereo in it, and a stack of half a dozen albums that someone had donated. Side one of James Gang Rides Again must have been played a hundred times on that thing, often over and over when everybody was too stoned to get up to change the record. By the time I graduated I knew every note of Woman, as well as every other song on that side of the album, by heart.
Artist: Doors
Title: Love Her Madly
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1971
Released as a single in advance of the 1971 Doors album L.A. Woman, Love Her Madly was a major success, peaking just outside the top 10 in the US, and going all the way to the #3 spot in Canada. The album itself was a return to a more blues-based sound by the Doors, a change that did not sit well with producer Paul Rothchild, who left the project early on, leaving engineer Bruce Botnik to assume production duties. Rothchild's opinion aside, it was exactly what the Doors needed to end their run (in their original four man incarnation) on a positive note.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Bourée
Source: CD: Stand Up
Writer: Bach, arr. Anderson
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1969
The second Jethro Tull album, Stand Up, saw the band moving a considerable distance from its blues-rock roots, as flautist Ian Anderson asserted himself as leader and sole songwriter for the group. Nowhere is that more evident than on the last track of the first side of Stand Up, the instrumental Bouree, which successfully melds jazz and classical influences into the Jethro Tull sound.
Artist: Crack The Sky
Title: I Don't Have A Tie/Sleep
Source: LP: Crack The Sky
Writer(s): John Palumbo
Label: Lifesong
Year: 1975
The first LP released on Terry Cashman and Joe West's Lifesong label was a group that is still active in the Baltimore area called Crack The Sky. Originally called Words, the band had been formed in Weirton, West Virginia by members of two local bands, Sugar and Uncle Louie. The 10-member band successfully auditioned for CashWest Productions, the company that also produced singer/songwriter Jim Croce, and, after paring down to five members, released their self-titled debut LP in 1975. Although never a major national success (due mostly to distribution problems on the part of Lifesong), the group did manage to place three albums on the Billboard charts, the two of which have since been reissued as a single CD. The band itself is hard to classify, incorporating elements of progressive rock, jazz and even soft-rock, all of which can be heard on the final two tracks on the album, I Don't Have A Tie and Sleep.
Artist: National Lampoon
Title: Mr. Roberts
Source: CD: Greatest Hits Of The National Lampoon (originally released on LP: That's Not Funny, That's Sick)
Writer(s): Murray/Guest
Label: Uproar (original label: Label 21)
Year: 1977
There are actually two Mr. Roberts tracks on the 1977 National Lampoon LP That's Not Funny, That's Sick. The more famous one depicts the children's show host (a parody of Mister Rogers) being accosted by the father of one of the neighborhood kids for spending too much time alone with his son. For my money, though, the far funnier one involves Mr. Roberts (voiced by Christopher Guest) interviewing a jazz bassist (voiced by Billy Murray), culminating in an invitation to take a trip to the "magic kingdom". Murray and Guest wrote the piece, which is included on the Greatest Hits Of The National Lampoon CD.
Artist: Hot Tuna
Title: Water Song
Source: LP: Final Vinyl (originally released on LP: Burgers)
Writer(s): Jorma Kaukonen
Label: Grunt
Year: 1972
Hot Tuna was originally formed as a side project by Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady in 1969, while Grace Slick was recovering from surgery and was unable to perform. By late 1971 Hot Tuna was a fully functional band that included violinist Papa John Creach (who was also a member of the Airplane) and drummer Sammy Piazza. Although they had already released a pair of live albums, Burgers was the group's first studio effort. The instrumental Water Song, was written by Kaukonen specifically for the album, and has gone on to become one of Hot Tuna's most popular numbers.
Artist: Joni Mitchell
Title: River
Source: LP: Blue
Writer(s): Joni Mitchell
Label: Reprise
Year: 1971
Joni Mitchell had just ended her three year long relationship with Graham Nash when she wrote the song River, which appears on the 1971 album Blue. The song's setting at Christmastime has made it the second most covered Joni Mitchell song (behind Both Sides Now).
Artist: Fairport Convention
Title: Genesis Hall
Source: LP: Fairport Chronicles (originally released on LP: Unhalfbricking)
Writer(s): Richard Thompson
Label: A&M
Year: 1969
Genesis Hall was the nickname of a run down former hotel that had become a crash pad for the homeless by 1969 that would soon become the site of a controversial mass eviction carried out by London police. Fairport Convention guitarist Richard Thompson took the side of the homeless for the opening track of the band's Unhalfbricking album that came out that same year. The song features the dulcimer, played by Simon Nicol, with lead vocals by Sandy Denny, and was also released as the B side of the band's only charting single.
Artist: Crosby, Still, Nash & Young
Title: Ohio
Source: LP: So Far (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Neil Young
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1970
One of the most powerful records to come out of the Nixon years, Ohio was written by Neil Young in response to shooting deaths of four college students by National Guard troops at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. Young wrote the lyrics after seeing photos of the incident in Life Magazine. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young recorded the song with their new rhythm section of Calvin Samuels and Johnny Barbata on May 21st. The recording was rush released within a few week, becoming a counter-culture anthem and cementing the group's reputation as spokesmen for their generation. Young later referred to the Kent State shootings as "probably the biggest lesson ever learned at an American place of learning," adding that "David Crosby cried when we finished this take." Crosby can be heard ad-libbing "Four, why? Why did they die?" and "How many more?" during the song's fadeout.
Artist: Doobie Brothers
Title: Black Water
Source: LP: What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits
Writer(s): Patrick Simmons
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1974
Doobie Brothers co-founder Patrick Simmons' contribution had been for the most part overshadowed by those of Tom Johnston on the band's first three albums, but with the song Black Water from the LP What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits, that changed in a big way. The song, inspired by a visit to New Orleans, was released as the B side of the album's first single, Johnston's Another Park, Another Sunday. That single, however, stalled out in the #32 spot, and a subsequent single, Eyes Of Silver, did even worse, peaking at #52. This worried the record label enough to re-release yet another Johnston song, Nobody, which had appeared on the band's first album and had been released as a single in 1971. But then something unexpected happened. A radio station in Roanoke, Virginia began playing Black Water as an album track, prompting overwhelming listener response that led to other stations in Virginia airing the song as well. Five weeks after the Roanoke station began playing Black Water, Warner Brothers reissued the song, this time as an A side. It became the Doobie Brothers' first #1 hit and revived the band's career.
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