https://exchange.prx.org/p/600430
It was 50 years ago this week that 1975 was coming to a close. The peace and love themes of the late 1960s had given way to the self-indulgence of the 1970s. Old bands had either disappeared or radically changed musical direction. New ones were making their presence known. Complicating it all were technological advances being made in the field of recording, not all of which were perfected before being put into use (See the Steely Dan entry for more on that). And to top it off the spectre of disco was already starting to make itself known. This week we take a sampling of what was being played on FM rock radio in 1975. Some of the tunes were big hits and are still heard on modern radio, while others were popular at the time, but have since drifted off into obscurity. We start with a set of album tracks, none of which were released as singles, then move on to some better-known tunes, finishing the week with a band that had been around for nearly ten years, but had completely reinvented itself by 1975.
Artist: Frank Zappa/Mothers Of Invention
Title: San Ber'dino
Source: CD: Strictly Commercial-The Best Of Frank Zappa (originally released on LP: One Size Fits All)
Writer(s): Frank Zappa
Label: Ryko (original label: Discreet)
Year: 1975
Frank Zappa's Mothers Of Invention continued in the same vein as the albums Over-Nite Sensation and Apostrophe (') with the 1975 LP One Size Fits All. One of the highlights of the album is San Ber'Dino, a slice of life song that features "flambe vocals" toward the end of the track from one of Zappa's musical heroes, Johnny "Guitar" Watson.
Artist: Hot Tuna
Title: Funky #7
Source: LP: Final Vinyl (originally released on LP: America's Choice)
Writer(s): Kaukonen/Casady
Label: Grunt
Year: 1975
Originally formed in 1969 as an offshoot of Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna started off as a mainly acoustic band doing mostly blues standards, and had performed as an opening act for the Airplane itself in 1970. In the early 1970s, with the Airplane winding down, Hot Tuna emerged as a fully electric band independent of the Airplane. In 1974 the band, which at that point consisted of guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, bassist Jack Casady and drummer Bob Steeler, decided that it would be "just fun to be loud" for a while, recording three albums in 1975-76 as a power trio that have come to be known as the Rampage Trilogy. The first of these three was America's Choice. With the exception of a Robert Johnson cover, all the tracks on America's Choice are Kaukonen compositions, including one, Funky #7, co-written by Casady.
Artist: Steely Dan
Title: Your Gold Teeth II
Source: CD: Katy Lied
Writer(s): Becker/Fagen
Label: MCA (original label: ABC)
Year: 1975
In 1974, following a somewhat disappointing tour to promote the Pretzel Logic album, keyboardist/vocalist Donald Fagen and bassist Walter Becker decided to disband the original Steely Dan, retaining the name as a duo and using studio musicians on all their subsequent albums. The first of these albums was Katy Lied, released in 1975. Although the album received mixed reviews from the rock press, it was a commercial success, achieving gold record status and hitting the #13 spot on both the US and UK charts. One of the songs on Katy Lied, Your Gold Teeth II, is a kind of sequel to a song from the 1973 album Countdown To Ecstacy. Because of a defect in the then-new DBX sound reduction system, Becker and Fagen refused to listen to the completed album, even though engineers claimed to have corrected the problem.
Artist: Joan Armatrading
Title: Cool Blue Stole My Heart
Source: LP: Back To The Night
Writer(s): Joan Armatrading
Label: A&M
Year: 1975
Joan Armatrading was born in 1950 in the British colony of Saint Christoper and Nevis (now known as the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis), the third of six children. After her parents moved to Birmingham in 1953 she stayed with an aunt on the island of Antigua until reuniting with her parents at the age of seven. She began writing her own songs at a young age, first on piano, then later on a guitar she would take to work with her after she left school at age 15 to help support her family. At her older brother's request, she made her stage debut in 1966 at Birmingham University, performing the only song she knew that she had not written herself, Paul Simon's The Sound Of Silence. From that point on she performed only her own compositions, playing bass and guitar at local clubs. With lyricist Pam Nestor, she recorded her debut LP, Whatever's For Us, in 1972. The two considered themselves a duo, with Nestor playing and singing on many of the songs they recorded, but their record label, Cube, deliberately chose to promote Armatrading as a solo artist instead and did not include any of the songs sung of played by Nestor on the album. This of course led to the duo splitting up. After a 1973 single failed to chart, Armatrading was able to get out of her contract with Cube and eventually signed with A&M Records, releasing her first album for the label, Back To The Night, in 1975. Armatrading still considered herself primarily a songwriter at this time, and was not yet committed to performing her songs as a full time career. The songs themselves are based on personal experience and cover a range of styles, including an early example of jazz-rock fusion on Cool Blue Stole My Heart, a song about her visit to Amsterdam. Armatrading continues to both write and perform, and in 2022 wrote her first classical piece, Symphony No. 1. The piece has been performed by Britain's Chineke! Orchestra, but to my knowledge has not yet been recorded.
Artist: Queen
Title: The Prophet's Song
Source: LP: A Night At The Opera
Writer(s): Brian May
Label: Virgin (original label: Elektra)
Year: 1975
When Queen's landmark LP, A Night At The Opera, was released in 1975, much attention was focused on the album's penultimate track, Freddy Mercury's Bohemian Rhapsody, which went all the way to the top of the British top 40 charts and is one of the most recognizable recordings of the 20th century. With all this attention focused on one song (albeit deservedly), several other outstanding tracks on the album have been somewhat neglected. Perhaps the best of these overlooked tracks is The Prophet's Song, a Brian May composition that opens side two of the vinyl LP. At over eight minutes in length, The Prophet's Song is Queen's longest song with vocals, and, like Bohemian Rhapsody, features layered overdubs by Mercury, including a fairly long acappella section in the middle of the track. The song also has powerful dynamics, ranging from the almost inaudible acoustic guitar and toy koto introduction to high volume electric lead guitar work set against a heavy metal background. As if that were not enough, The Prophet's Song also has a powerful message, making it one of Queen's most important works.
Artist: Heart
Title: Magic Man
Source: LP: Dreamboat Annie
Writer(s): Ann & Nancy Wilson
Label: Mushroom
Year: 1975
I've always had a soft spot for Heart's first album, Dreamboat Annie. Maybe it's because the album's history parallels my entry into the world of college radio. Released in late 1975 in Canada, the album did not appear in the US until mid-1976. I had first started volunteering at KUNM in Albuquerque in late 1975. By the time Dreamboat Annie was released in the US, KUNM had moved into new facilities (with a significant power boost) and I had a regular daytime slot at the station. One day when I was on the air, the program director brought in a stack of new albums. The cover of Dreamboat Annie caught my attention, and I ended up playing Magic Man. I was so blown away by the tune I went out and bought a copy of the album as soon as it hit the record racks. If you hear a few ticks and pops, it's because it's the same copy I bought in 1976.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Have A Cigar
Source: CD: Wish You Were Here
Writer(s): Roger Waters
Label: Parlophone (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1975
One of the most recognizable songs in the entire Pink Floyd catalog, Have A Cigar is an indictment of the hypocrisy, greed and general sleaziness that drives the modern music industry. Recorded in Abbey Road's studio 3, the song featured guest vocalist Roy Harper, who was working on an album of his own in studio 2 at the time. Both David Gilmour and Roger Waters attempted to sing the song (which was written by Waters), but were unhappy with the results. Gilmour had already contributed some guitar parts to Harper's album, and decided to ask Harper to return the favor. The song appears on the album Wish You Were Here, which both Waters and Gilmour have said is their favorite Pink Floyd album.
Artist: Elton John
Title: Someone Saved My Life Tonight
Source: LP: Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy
Writer(s): John/Taupin
Label: MCA
Year: 1975
I always considered Someone Saved My Life Tonight to be sort of a typical Elton John song, but gained a new appreciation for the tune when it was referenced in Stephen King's Wolves Of The Calla, the fifth book of his Dark Tower series. Still, it took several more years before I finally scored a copy of Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy, the 1975 album that the song originally appeared on. The song itself is a very personal one, about a time in the singer's life when he was contemplating giving up his music career and getting married. Luckily his friend Long John Baldry ("Sugar Bear") talked him out of it, thus saving his musical life.
Artist: Pavlov's Dog
Title: Julia
Source: European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Pampered Menial)
Writer(s): Davic Surkamp
Label: Sony Music (original label: ABC)
Year: 1975
During my first couple of years living in Albuquerque, NM, I met quite an assortment of strange and unusual people. Among them were a guy who would eventually come to be known as Carlos the Ragman and his roommate, Clint. Clint was, as near as I can tell, possessed of a genius IQ, enhanced by far too many acid trips. He seemed to be in possession of some sort of telepathic powers as well, as was made apparent on more than one occasion. In addition to (or maybe because of) all these things, Clint had somewhat unusual tastes in music. I remember him showing up one evening with an album he had just bought called Pampered Menial, by a band from St. Louis, Mo. called Pavlov's Dog. The opening track, Julia, was truly like nothing I had ever heard before, probably due to the unique vocals of David Surkamp, the writer of Julia. In addition to Surkamp, the band included Steve Scorfina, Mike Safron, Rick Stockton, David Hamilton, Doug Rayburn and Siegfried Carver.
Artist: Jefferson Starship
Title: Miracles
Source: CD: Jefferson Starship-The Box Set Series (originally released on LP: Red Octopus)
Writer(s): Marty Balin
Label: RCA/Legacy (original label: Grunt)
Year: 1975
After leaving Jefferson Airplane in 1971, vocalist Marty Balin attempted to put some distance between himself and his former bandmates. His first project was to produce an album by a band called Grootna in 1972. The following year he recruited two Grootna members, guitarist Vic Smith and drummer Greg Dewey, to form a new band, Bodacious DF. They were soon joined by bassist Mark Ryan and keyboardist Charlie Hickox, releasing a self-titled album in 1973. Not long after the album was released the group disbanded, with Balin becoming a member of Jefferson Starship in 1975, and writing and singing lead on the new band's first major hit, Miracles, which went all the way to the #3 spot on the top 40 charts. The album Red Octopus, which featured the much longer LP version of the song heard here, topped the Billboard album charts for four non-consecutive weeks in 1975.
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