https://exchange.prx.org/p/560424
This time around, after a mood-setting piece from Steely Dan, we take a journey from 1969 to 1976, one year at a time, with a short comedy break along the way.
Artist: Steely Dan
Title: Show Biz Kids
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Becker/Fagen
Label: ABC
Year: 1973
Steely Dan's second LP, 1973's Countdown To Ecstasy, did not sell as well as their 1972 debut LP. The reason usually cited for this dropoff in sales is the lack of a hit single, although at least two singles were released from the album. The second of these was Show Biz Kids, a song that sums up the Los Angeles lifestyle, a theme that songwriters Walter Becker and Donald Fagen would continue to explore for the rest of the decade.
Artist: Crosby, Stills and Nash
Title: You Don't Have To Cry
Source: CD: Crosby, Stills and Nash
Writer: Stephen Stills
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1969
After the breakup of Buffalo Springfield in 1968, Stephen Stills spent some time in the studio cutting demo tapes as well as pitching in to help his friend Al Kooper complete the Super Session album when guitarist Mike Bloomfield became incapacitated by his heroin addiction. He then started hanging out at David Crosby's place in Laurel Canyon. Joined by Graham Nash, who had recently left the Hollies, they recorded the first Crosby, Stills and Nash album. Several of the tunes Stills had penned since the Springfield breakup were included on the album, including You Don't Have To Cry. The song addresses his own breakup with singer Judy Collins.
Artist: Firesign Theatre
Title: Napalmolive/Angadrine
Source: LP: Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers
Writer(s): Proctor/Bergman/Austin/Ossman
Label: Columbia
Year: 1970
Among the many short sections of TV shows that George Tirebiter tunes in on the album Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers are a pair of commercial parodies, Napalmolive and Angadrine. This sort of sketch humor would become the staple of actual TV shows like Saturday Night Live and Second City TV in the 1970s, as well as movies like Tunnel Vision and the Groove Tube.
Artist: Guess Who
Title: American Woman
Source: CD: American Woman
Writer: Bachman/Cummings/Peterson/Kale
Label: Buddha/BMG (original label: RCA Victor)
Year: 1970
From 1968-1970 I was living on Ramstein AFB, which was and is a huge base in Germany with enough Canadian personnel stationed there to justify their own on-base school. For much of the time I lived there I found myself hanging out with a bunch of Canadian kids and I gotta tell you, they absolutely loved everything by the Guess Who, who were, after all, the most successful Canadian rock band in history. In particular, they all loved the band's most political (and controversial) hit, the 1970 tune American Woman. I rather liked it myself, and immediately went out and bought a copy of the album, one of the first to be pressed on RCA's Dynaflex [shudder] vinyl.
Artist: Yes
Title: Yours Is No Disgrace
Source: CD: The Yes Album
Writer(s): Anderson/Squire/Howe/Kaye/Bruford
Label: Elektra/Rhino (original label: Atlantic)
Year: 1971
1970 was a transition year for the progressive rock band known as Yes. Their first two albums, Yes and Time And A Word, had not sold well, and their label, Atlantic, was considering dropping them from their roster. Internally, creative differences between guitarist Peter Banks and the rest of the band led to Banks leaving the group, eventually forming his own band, Flash. The remaining members quickly recruited Steve Howe, who was making a name for himself as a studio musician following the breakup of Tomorrow a couple of years earlier. Howe proved to be a more than suitable replacement, as his versatility served the band's experimental style well. With Howe firmly in place, the group got to work on their third LP, The Yes Album. Unlike Yes's previous albums, which had each included a pair of highly rearranged cover songs (following a pattern set by such bands as Vanilla Fudge and Deep Purple), The Yes Album was made up entirely of original material, mostly written by vocalist Jon Anderson and bassist Chris Squire. Yours Is No Disgrace, however, which opens the album, is credited to the entire band, and gives each member a chance to shine without detracting from the band as a whole. The membership of Yes would continue to fluctuate, however, with keyboardist Tony Kaye, who did not share the rest of the band's enthusiam for the new synthesizers hitting the market, leaving shortly after the album was released, and drummer Bill Bruford following suit following the release of the band's fifth album, Close To The Edge. Eventually even Anderson and Squire would depart the group, leaving Steve Howe currently at the helm of a band containing none of its original members.
Artist: Wishbone Ash
Title: Blowin' Free
Source: CD: Argus
Writer(s): Upton/Turner/Turner/Powell
Label: MCA/Decca
Year: 1972
Known to the band's fans as the "Ash Anthem", Blowin' Free is probably the single most popular song Wishbone Ash ever recorded. The song, with lyrics written by bassist Martin Turner before Wishbone Ash even formed, is about Turner's Swedish ex-girlfriend.
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Title: No Quarter
Source: CD: Houses Of The Holy
Writer(s): Jones/Page/Plant
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1973
Recorded in 1972, No Quarter was first released on the fifth Led Zeppelin album, Houses Of The Holy, and remained a part of the band's concert repertoire throughout their existence. The song is a masterpiece of recording technology, showing just how well-versed the band had become in the studio by that time. The title of the song comes from the military phrase "No quarter asked, none given" (don't ask a foe for mercy, nor grant mercy to a fallen enemy), with several references to the concept appearing in the lyrics throughout the song.
Artist: Jeff Beck
Title: AIR Blower/Scatterbrain
Source: CD: Blow By Blow
Writer(s): Beck/Middleton/Bailey/Chen
Label: Epic
Year: 1975
After dissolving the group Beck, Bogert and Appice in 1973, guitarist Jeff Beck spent the next year supporting various other musicians both on stage and in the studio before going to work on what would his first official solo album since Truth was released in 1968. Produced by George Martin, Blow By Blow is Beck's first album made up entirely of instrumentals, with Beck being joined by keyboardist Max Middleton (a veteran of the earlier Jeff Beck Group), bassist Phil Chen and drummer Richard Bailey. The album features several tracks that cross-fade into the next song, such as AIR Blower (the only track on the album that credits all four band members as songwriters) and Scatterbrain (written by Beck and Middleton). Blow By Blow turned out to be Beck's most commercially successful album, leading to more instrumental LPs over the next several years.
Artist: Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Title: Cortez The Killer
Source: CD: Decade (originally released on LP: Zuma)
Writer(s): Neil Young
Label: Reprise
Year: 1975
Neil Young reunited with a slightly changed Crazy Horse (guitarist Frank Sampedro being the new member) for his 1975 album. Zuma, coming on the heels of his "Ditch Trilogy", it was a return to the raw sound heard on the 1969 album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. The most popular track on the album, Cortez The Killer, was banned in Spain under the Franco regime and only released there after the dictator's death. As originally performed in the studio the track ran nearly ten minutes in length, but a blown circuit on the mixing board cut off the original recording somewhere around the seven and a half minute mark. Rather than attempting to re-record the tune, the band elected to fade the song out just before the cutoff point.
Artist: Hot Tuna
Title: Song From The Stainless Crystal
Source: LP: Final Vinyl (originally released on LP: Hoppkorv)
Writer(s): Jorma Kaukonen
Label: Grunt
Year: 1976
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. Originally an acoustic duo supplemented by various guest musicians, Hot Tuna eventually developed into a power trio, with Kaukonen and Casady being joined by drummer Bob Steeler for the band's final three studio albums, sometimes known as the "rampage trio". Song From The Stainless Crystal was the final track on Hoppkorv, the last of the three LPs. Hot Tuna disbanded before making any more studio albums, with Kaukonen and Casady spending the next few years on individual projects. Hot Tuna officially returned in 1984 with the album Splashdown and continues to make appearances as both an acoustic duo and a full band.
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