https://exchange.prx.org/p/567395
We go with shorter sets this week, starting with four tunes from 1968. From there it's a short trip from 1969 to 1972, followed by an even shorter set from the mid-1970s. From there it's a couple of tunes we've never played on the show before to finish things out.
Artist: Spirit
Title: Fresh Garbage
Source: CD: Spirit
Writer(s): Jay Ferguson
Label: Ode/Epic/Legacy
Year: 1968
Much of the material on the first Spirit album was composed by vocalist Jay Ferguson while the band was living in a big house in California's Topanga Canyon outside of Los Angeles. During their stay there was a garbage strike, which became the inspiration for the album's opening track, Fresh Garbage. The song starts off as a fairly hard rocker and suddenly breaks into a section that is pure jazz, showcasing the group's instrumental talents, before returning to the main theme to finish out the track.The group used a similar formula on about half the tracks on the LP, giving the album and the band a distinctive sound right out of the box.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Prodigal Son
Source: LP: Beggar's Banquet
Writer(s): Robert Wilkins
Label: London
Year: 1968
The Rolling Stones always had a fondness for American Roots music, but by 1967 had largely abandoned the genre in favor of more modern sounds such as pychedelia. The 1968 album Beggar's Banquet, however, marked a return to the band's own roots and included such tunes as Prodigal Son, which at first was credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. In reality the song was written by the Reverend Robert Wilkins, and has since been acknowledged as such.
Artist: Beau Brummels
Title: Deep Water
Source: LP: The 1969 Warner/Reprise Songbook (originally released on LP: Bradley's Barn)
Writer(s): Elliott/Valentino
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1968
The Beau Brummels were one of the first San Francisco bands to hit the top 20 in the US with their 1964 single Laugh Laugh, following it up with the even more successful Just A Little in 1965. This made them the top act at Autumn Records, owned by legendary San Francisco Disc Jockey Tom "Big Daddy" Donahue. When Autumn got into financial trouble and declared bankruptcy in late 1966 they sold the Beau Brummels' contract to Warner Brothers. Because of publishing issues, the Brummels' first album for Warner was made up entirely of cover songs, but were able to eventually record two albums' worth of material before disbanding in late 1968. By this time the Beau Brummels had been reduced to the duo of guitarist Ron Elliott and vocalist Sal Valentino, who had moved to Nashville and enlisted several prominent Nashville musicians, including keyboardist David Briggs, drummer Kenny Buttrey and guitarist Jerry Reed, for their final album. Bradley's Barn (the name of both the album and the studio where it was recorded) is considered an early example of country rock. When Warner Brothers compiled their first of a series of budget-priced mail order only albums known as Loss Leaders, they included Deep Water from Bradley's Barn.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: A Song For Jeffrey
Source: LP: Living In The Past (originally released on LP: This Was)
Writer(s): Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
Jethro Tull's second single (and first European hit) was A Song For Jeffrey from their debut LP, This Was. The Jeffrey in the song title is Jeffrey Hammond, who, according to the liner notes, was "one of us, though he doesn't play anything". The notes go on to say he "makes bombs and stuff". In fact, Hammond would replace bassist Glen Cornick a few albums later and remain with the group for several years. The song itself proved popular enough that when the band compiled their first Anthology album, Living In The Past, A Song For Jeffrey was chosen to open the album.
Artist: Who
Title: Amazing Journey
Source: British Import CD: Spirit Of Joy (originally released on LP: Tommy)
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: Polydor UK (original US 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 most popular 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 "deaf, dumb and blind" condition.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: Working On The Road
Source: CD: Cricklewood Green
Writer(s): Alvin Lee
Label: Chrysalis (original label: Deram)
Year: 1970
Following their successful appearance at Woodstock, Ten Years After returned to the studio to record their fifth LP, Cricklewood Green. The album itself is considered by many critics to be their finest effort, with songs like Working On The Road showing how far Alvin Lee's songwriting had come in the three years since the band's 1967 debut LP.
Artist: Allman Brothers Band
Title: In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed
Source: LP: At Fillmore East
Writer(s): Dicky Betts
Label: Mercury (original label: Capricorn)
Year: 1971
One of the greatest instrumentals in rock history, In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed was written by Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dicky Betts. The song got it's name from a headstone that Betts saw at the Rose Hill Cemetary in Macon, Georgia. That same cemetary is where band members Duane Allman and Berry Oakley are now buried. The version of the song heard on the 1971 album At Fillmore East was recorded live on March 13, 1971 and contains no edits or overdubs. Yes, they were that good.
Artist: Grand Funk Railroad
Title: Rock 'N' Roll Soul
Source: 45 RPM single (promo)
Writer: Mark Farner
Label: Capitol
Year: 1972
By 1972 Grand Funk Railroad's performances were no longer all sellouts, and the band began to shift emphasis to their recorded work. Problems with Terry Knight's management practices were also becoming an issue, and their sixth studio LP, Phoenix, would be the last to be produced by Knight. Rock 'N' Roll Soul, a somewhat typical Mark Farner song, was the first and only single released from the album, and would have only minor success on the charts. The next record, We're An American Band, would signal a major change of direction for the band, with other members besides Farner taking a role in the songwriting and a much greater emphasis on hit singles than ever before.
Artist: Bad Company
Title: Can't Get Enough
Source: LP: Bad Company
Writer(s): Mick Ralphs
Label: Swan Song
Year: 1974
It's pretty much a given that there are no guarantees in the entertainment industry, but there have been artists that seemed destined to hit it big right out of the box. One of the most successful was the British rock group Bad Company. It had a lot going for it; vocalist Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke had been members of Free, while guitarist Mick Ralphs was a veteran of Mott the Hoople. Even the bass player, Boz Burrell, had a stint with King Crimson under his belt. The band was the first group signed to Led Zeppelin's Swan Song label, even before they began work on their debut album. And sure enough, their debut album went right to the top of the US charts, going on to become the 46th best selling album of the 1970s. The first single from the album, Can't Get Enough, peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and is a staple of classic rock radio to this day.
Artist: John Lennon
Title: #9 Dream
Source: CD: Lennon (box set) (originally released on LP: Walls And Bridges)
Writer(s): John Lennon
Label: Capitol (original label: Apple)
Year: 1974
#9 Dream has the distinction of being John Lennon's last original composition to be released as a single before his five year hiatus from recording (from 1975-80), as well as his last song to hit the top 10 during his lifetime. The tune, from the Walls And Bridges album, is one of the most lavishly produced recordings in the Lennon catalog, featuring string arrangements written by Lennon himself. The song peaked at (coincidentally) the #9 spot on the Billboard charts in the US.
Artist: Joni Mitchell
Title: The Jungle Line
Source: LP: The Hissing Of Summer Lawns
Writer(s): Joni Mitchell
Label: Asylum
Year: 1975
Sampling, defined as the reuse of a portion (or sample) of a sound recording in another recording, has long been associated with hip-hop, which emerged as a separate musical genre in the 1980s. The first use of sampling in commercial music, however, actually came in 1974, when Canadian singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell used a loop recording of Burundi drummers as the rythmic basis of The Jungle Line, a song inspired by the paintings of Henri Rousseau. The Jungle Line appeared as the second track on Mitchell's seventh studio LP, The Hissing Of Summer Lawns.
Artist: J.J. Cale
Title: Don't Talk To Strangers
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): J.J. Cale
Label: Shelter
Year: 1971
Oklahoma native John Weldon Cale first moved out to the west coast in 1964, where he found moderate success as a songwriter and landed a regular gig playing the Whisky a Go Go on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Around this time he started using the name J.J. Cale to avoid confusion with the New York songwriter/violist John Cale (later to be a founding member of the Velvet Underground). His records, however (including an early fast version of After Midnight) went nowhere and Cale returned to Tulsa in late 1967. Nearly three years later Cale was surprised to hear Eric Clapton's cover of After Midnight on the radio, and at the suggestion of a friend decided to record an entire album of his original compositions. That album, Naturally, was released on Leon Russell's Shelter label in 1971, and included a slowed-down version of After Midnight. The most popular song from Naturally, however turned out to be a song called Crazy Mama that was released as a single in 1972, with another track from the album, Don't Talk To Strangers, as the B side
Artist: Doobie Brothers
Title: Snake Man
Source: CD: Toulouse Street
Writer(s): Tom Johnston
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1972
The final track on the second Doobie Brothers album, Toulouse Street, is also the shortest. Snake Man is essentially a Tom Johnston solo piece, accompanied by drums played with brushes rather than sticks.
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