https://exchange.prx.org/p/592604
With the weather starting to get colder, we decided to turn up the heat a bit with a 50-minute set that cooks. Then we have a short soul set to cool things off.
Artist: Doors
Title: Light My Fire
Source: CD: The Best Of The Doors (originally released on LP: The Doors)
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Once in a while a song comes along that totally blows you away the very first time you hear it. The Doors' Light My Fire was one of those songs. I liked it so much that I immediately went out and bought the 45 RPM single. Not long after that I heard the full-length version of the song from the first Doors album and was blown away all over again. To this day I have a tendency to crank up the volume whenever I hear it.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Gypsy Eyes
Source: LP: Electric Ladyland
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
Electric Ladyland, the last album by the original Jimi Hendrix Experience, was a double LP mixture of studio recordings and live jams in the studio with an array of guest musicians. Gypsy Eyes is a good example of Hendrix's prowess at the mixing board as well as on guitar.
Artist: Johnny Winter
Title: I'm Yours And I'm Hers
Source: European import CD: Johnny Winter
Writer(s): Johnny Winter
Label: Repertoire (original US label: Columbia)
Year: 1969
1969 was a big year for Johnny Winter. An article the previous year in Rolling Stone magazine referring to the "albino guitarist with long white hair causing a stir in the Southwest" had led to his album The Progressive Blues Experiment being picked up by Imperial Records for national distribution, which in turn led to Winters signing with Columbia, one of the world's largest and most influential record labels. His first album for Columbia, titled simply Johnny Winter, was a critical and commercial success, instantly putting him in the top tier of both blues and rock guitarists. The opening track of the LP was I'm Your And I'm Hers, a Johnny Winter original that utilized the talents of future Double Trouble bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer "Uncle" John Turner, both members of Johnny's band Winter at the time. This same lineup would record a second album for Columbia with Johnny's brother Edgar on keyboards and saxophone before being disbanded in favor of the group that was originally called the McCoys, but would soon come to be known as Johnny Winter And.
Artist: Wishbone Ash
Title: Lady Whiskey
Source: CD: Wishbone Ash
Writer(s): Turner/Turner/Powell/Upton
Label: MCA (original label: Decca)
Year: 1970
In its own way, the first Wishbone Ash album rocks out as hard as any album released in 1970, and is certainly one of the better debut LPs in rock history. The band would actually soften their sound a touch for later albums, but on tunes like Lady Whiskey they showed that they could hold their own in a world that included bands like Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and Led Zeppelin.
Artist: Canned Heat
Title: Same All Over
Source: CD: The Very Best Of Canned Heat (originally released on LP: Hallelujah)
Writer(s): Hite/Taylor/Vestine/Wilson/de la Parra
Label: Capitol/EMI (original label: Liberty)
Year: 1969
Hallelujah was the fourth album released by Canned Heat and the last one to feature the band's classic lineup of Bob Hite (lead vocals), Alan Wilson (guitar, vocals, harmonica), Henry Vestine (lead guitar), Larry Taylor (bass) and Fito de la Parra (drums). Just a few days after the album's July 1969 release an onstage altercation between Vestine and Taylor would result in the guitarist's (temporary as it turned out) departure from the band, to be replaced by Harvey Mandel in time for the group's memorable appearance at Woodstock. Hallelujah starts off strong with Same All Over, an original composition credited to the entire band and featuring veteran bluesman Ernest Lane sitting in on organ and piano.
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: Allman Brothers Band
Title: Don't Want You No More/It's Not My Cross To Bear
Source: CD: Beginnings (originally released on LP: The Allman Brothers Band)
Writer(s): Davis/Hardin/Allman
Label: Polydor/Polygram (original label: Atco)
Year: 1969
The first Allman Brothers band album sold poorly outside of the southeastern US and was pulled from the shelves within a year. Meanwhile, the second album, Idlewild South, did a bit better and the third album, recorded live at the Fillmore East, was a breakout hit. This prompted Capricorn, which in the meantime had morphed from a production house to a full-blown label, to reissue the first two albums as a 2-record set for the price of one called, appropriately, Beginnings. Don't Want You No More is an instrumental (originally recorded by the post-Winwood version of the Spencer Davis Group) that serves as an introduction to both the band and their first album, and segues directly into the Gregg Allman tune It's Not My Cross To Bear.
Artist: Santana
Title: Se A Cabo
Source: LP: Abraxas
Writer(s): Chepito Areas
Label: Columbia
Year: 1970
Following their successful appearance at Woodstock in August of 1969, Santana returned to the studio to begin work on their second LP. Unlike their self-titled debut, Abraxas took several months to record, finally hitting the racks in September of 1970. Like the group's first album, Abraxas includes several instrumental tracks such as Se A Cabo, which opens side two of the original LP. The tune was written by percussionist José Octavio "Chepito" Areas, who played timbales for the band from 1969-1977, returning for a three-year stint in the late 1980s.
Artist: Focus
Title: Hocus Pocus
Source: British import CD: Spirit Of Joy (originally released on LP: Moving Waves)
Writer(s): van Leer/Akkerman
Label: Polydor (original US label: Sire)
Year: 1971
Although it was not a hit until 1973, Hocus Pocus, by the Dutch progressive rock band Focus, has the type of simple structure coupled with high energy that was characteristic of many of the garage bands of the mid to late 60s. The song was originally released on the band's second LP, known alternately as Focus II and Moving Waves, in 1971. Both guitarist Jan Akkerman and keyboardist/vocalist/flautist Thijs van Leer have gone on to have successful careers, with van Leer continuing to use to the Focus name as recently as 2006.
Artist: Black Sabbath
Title: Supernaut
Source: CD: Greatest Hits 1970-1978 (originally released on LP: Vol. 4)
Writer(s): Iommi/Osbourne/Butler/Ward
Label: Warner Brothers/Rhino
Year: 1972
After a string of three outstanding albums, success started to take its toll on Black Sabbath. Their fourth LP was originally going to be called Snowblind, which accurately describes the state the band members were in most of the time while recording the album. Reportedly, entire speaker boxes full of cocaine were arriving at the studio on a regular basis; at the same time, the band was making their first attempt at producing themselves. Despite all this, the album, which ended up being called Vol. 4 after their label rejected Snowblind as the title, has some of Sabbath's strongest songs, including Supernaut, which closes out the LP's first side. Fans of the song included John Bonham, Frank Zappa and Beck (Hansen).
Artist: Sly and the Family Stone
Title: If You Want Me To Stay
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Sylvester Stewart
Label: Epic
Year: 1973
By 1973 only trumpeter Cynthia Thompson and saxophonist Jerry Martini remained from the original Sly and the Family Stone lineup, and relationships within the band itself were, to put it mildly, strained (Stone reportedly had hired Mafia-related bodyguards to protect him from those he considered his enemies, including some of his own bandmates). Stone's own focus had been steadily been turning more and more inward, and he had taken to overusing a technique known as bouncing to free up extra tracks for recording. The result was rather muddy sounding tunes such as If You Want Me To Stay, which became the band's final top 20 hit.
Artist: Cheech & Chong
Title: The Other Tapes (fragment)
Source: LP: Cheech & Chang's Wedding Album
Writer(s): Marin/Chong
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1974
The Other Tapes is basically two minutes of a hospital orderly yanking bits of masking tape off an injured motorcycle rider. This 20-second fragment includes what passes for a punchline on the original track.
Artist: Hot Chocolate
Title: Brother Louie
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Brown/Wilson
Label: Rak
Year: 1973
The British soul band Hot Chocolate recorded the original version of the song Brother Louie in early 1973. Co-written and sung by band members Errol Brown and Tony Wilson, the song peaked at #7 on the UK charts. A few months later the song was covered by an American band called Stories, who took Brother Louie to the top of the US charts in the summer of 1973. Personally I prefer the British original with its (in my opinion) essential spoken parts at key points in the recording.
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