https://exchange.prx.org/p/564657
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This week we pull out a whole bunch of tunes that haven't been played on Rockin' in the Days of Confusion before, along with a couple that were last played over five years ago. And yeah, there are two or three that have been heard more recently as well.
Artist: Paul McCartney & Wings
Title: Nineteen Hundred And Eighty-Five
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Paul McCartney
Label: Apple
Year: 1973
Band On The Run is often cited as Paul McCartney's best post-Beatles album. The third single from the album paired the first and last tracks from the album itself, with the song Nineteen Hundred And Eighty-Five ending with a coda reprising the chorus of the album's title track.
Artist: Gun
Title: Race With The Devil
Source: European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Gun)
Writer(s): Adrian Gurvitz
Label: Repertoire (original UK label: Columbia)
Year: 1968
One of the most popular songs on the jukebox at the teen club on Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany in 1969 was a song called Race With The Devil by a band called Gun. The song was so popular, in fact, that at least two local bands covered it (including the one I was in). Nobody seemed to know much about Gun at the time, but it turns out that the group was fronted by the Gurvitz brothers, Adrian and Paul (who at the time were using the last name Curtis); the two would later be members of the Baker-Gurvitz Army with drummer Ginger Baker. I've also learned recently that Gun spent much of its time touring in Europe, particularly in Germany, where Race With The Devil hit its peak in January of 1969 (it had made the top 10 in the UK in 1968, the year it was released).
Artist: Who
Title: Amazing Journey/Sparks
Source: LP: Tommy
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: Decca
Year: 1969
After achieving major success in their native England with a series of hit singles in 1965-67, the Who began to concentrate more on their albums from 1968 on. The first of these concept albums was The Who Sell Out, released in December of 1967. The Who Sell Out was a collection of songs connected by faux radio spots and actual jingles from England's last remaining pirate radio station, Radio London. After releasing a few more singles in 1968, the Who began work on their most ambitious project yet: the world's first rock opera. Tommy, released in 1969, was a double LP telling the story of a boy who, after being tramautized into becoming a blind deaf-mute, eventually emerges as a kind of messiah, only to have his followers ultimately abandon him. One of the early tracks on the album is Amazing Journey, describing Tommy's voyage into the recesses of his own mind in response to the traumatic event that results in his blind, deaf and dumb condition. This leads into the instrumental Sparks, featuring a bass solo by John Entwhistle and some intricate guitar work from Pete Townshend.
Artist: Chicago
Title: Poem For The People
Source: CD: Chicago
Writer(s): Robert Lamm
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1970
Bassist Peter Cetera and keyboardist Robert Lamm share the lead vocals on Poem For The People from the second Chicago album. The song is an invitation to expand one's mind, without being particularly specific about what method to use.
Artist: Grand Funk Railroad
Title: All You've Got Is Money
Source: CD: Survival
Writer(s): Mark Farner
Label: Capitol
Year: 1971
By 1971, Grand Funk Railroad was commanding upwards of $50,000 per show, which probably explains how they were able to get away with including a song called All You've Got Is Money on their fourth studio LP, Survival. The song actually complements the old standard Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out.
Artist: Genesis
Title: Watcher Of The Skies
Source: CD: Foxtrot
Writer(s): Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label: Rhino/Atlantic (original label: Charisma)
Year: 1972
The opening song for most of Genesis's live performances throughout the mid-1970s was also the opening track of their 1972 album Foxtrot. Watcher Of The Skies was inspired by the works of science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke (Childhood's End) and legendary comic book writer Stan Lee (the Tales Of The Watcher series), although the title itself reportedly was taken from an 1817 poem by John Keats. The two alternating chords at the beginning of the piece were actually the result of the limitations of a Mellotron MKII (a keyboard instrument that utilized tape loops of string orchestras) that keyboardist Tony Banks had just bought from King Crimson. According to Banks "There were these two chords that sounded really good on that instrument. There are some chords you can't play on that instrument because they'd be so out of tune. These chords created an incredible atmosphere. That's why it's just an incredible intro number. It never sounded so good on the later Mellotron."
Artist: Dr. John
Title: Cold Cold Cold
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Johnson/Hill/Rebennack
Label: Atco
Year: 1973
Mac Rebennack was a fixture on the New Orleans music scene for over 50 years. He first started performing publicly in his teens, lying about his age to able to play in some of the city's more infamous clubs. At age 13 he was expelled from Jesuit school and soon found work as a staff songwriter and guitarist for the legendary Aladdin label. In 1957, at age 16, he joined the musicians' union, officially beginning his professional career. In the early 1960s he got into trouble with the law and spent two years in federal prison. Upon his release he relocated to Los Angeles, due to an ongoing cleanup campaign in New Orleans that had resulted in most of the clubs he had previously played in being permanently shut down. While in L.A., Rebennack developed his Dr. John, the Night Tripper personna, based on a real-life New Orleans voodoo priest with psychedelic elements thrown in (it was 1968 after all). By the early 1970s Dr. John had developed a cult following, but was getting tired of the self-imposed limitations of his Night Tripper image. In 1972 he recorded an album of New Orleans cover songs, following it up with his most successful album, In The Right Place, in 1973. Produced by the legendary Allen Toussaint, In The Right Place provided Dr. John his most successful hit single, Right Place Wrong Time, as well as a followup single, Such A Night, that peaked just outside the top 40. Although most of Dr. John's tunes were solo compositions, he did, on occasion, collaborate with other New Orleans songwriters such as Alvin "Shine" Robinson and Jessie Hill on songs like Cold Cold Cold, which closes out In The Right Place and appeared as the B side of Such A Night. Dr. John continued to perform on a regular basis until shortly before his death on June 6, 2019.
Artist: Doobie Brothers
Title: Black Water
Source: CD: 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.
Artist: Crack The Sky
Title: Hold On/Surf City
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, with unexpected twists and turns, as can be heard on the first LP's opening track, Hold On, which segues directly into the innovative Surf City.
Artist: Cheech And Chong
Title: Trippin' In Court
Source: CD: Cheech & Chong
Writer(s): Marin/Chong
Label: Warner Brothers (original label: Ode)
Year: 1971
Cheech Marin and Thomas Chong take on a variety of voices for Trippin' In Court, from their 1971 debut album, including a judge, a bailiff, a nervous public defender, a drunken pervert and, in a starring role, Anthony "Man" Stoner, who would be featured in several films, starting with 1978's Up In Smoke.
Artist: Mothers Of Invention
Title: Electric Aunt Jemima
Source: LP: The 1969 Warner/Reprise Record Show (originally released on LP: Uncle Meat)
Writer(s): Frank Zappa
Label: Warner Brothers (original labels: Bizarre/Reprise)
Year: 1969
Following the release of Absolutely Free in 1967, Frank Zappa began work on a project he called No Commercial Potential, which consisted of four albums with a common theme. The first of these was We're Only In It For The Money, released as a Mothers Of Invention album in March of 1968, followed by Zappa's first official solo album, Lumpy Gravy two months later. The third album, Cruising with Ruben & the Jets, was credited to the Mothers Of Invention and appeared on the racks in December of 1968. Not long after the release of Ruben, Zappa parted company with M-G-M's Verve label, prompting the company to release an unauthorized (yet compiled by Zappa himself) retrospective album called Mothermania. In 1969 Zappa's Bizarre Productions became an actual record label distributed by Warner Brothers as a partner to Reprise Records. One of the earliest releases on Bizarre was Uncle Meat, the fourth and final portion of No Commercial Potential. The double LP, including several short pieces such as Electric Aunt Jemima, would eventually become the basis for the 1987 film Uncle Meat.
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