https://exchange.prx.org/p/601223
Although on first glance it may seem that all the song titles in the first set (and part of the second) have some sort of subliminal messaging going on, really it's just a lot of good music.
Artist: Three Dog Night
Title: Liar
Source: Mono 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Russ Ballard
Label: Dunhill
Year: 1971
Before the Beatles came along a typical pop group consisted of three or more vocalists backed by studio musicians and performing material provided by professional songwriters. In a sense Three Dog Night was a throwback to that earlier model, as the group was formed around a nucleus of three vocalists: Chuck Negron, Cory Wells and Danny Hutton. Unlike the early 60s groups, however, Three Dog Night chose to hire a fixed set of instrumentalists to both play on their records and perform live material (most of which did indeed come from professional songwriters). One of their many hit singles was Liar, a song written by Argent's lead vocalist Russ Ballard and originally released on that group's 1970 debut LP. The Three Dog Night version went into the US top 10 in 1971.
Artist: Beach Boys
Title: Student Demonstration Time
Source: LP: Surf's Up
Writer(s): Lieber/Stoller/Love
Label: Brother/Reprise
Year: 1971
The 1970 album Sunflower was the worst-selling album in Beach Boys history. To rectify their falling popularity the group brought in a new manager, Jack Riely, aka KPFK DJ John Frank. Riely immediately set about making changes, including the appointment of Carl Wilson as the band's official leader and the abandonment of the group's long-standing practice of dressing alike on stage. He also worked with the band creatively, encouraging them to write more relevant songs. Mike Love responded by adapting Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller's Riot In Cell Block 9, originally released by the Robins in 1954, updating the lyrics to reflect the political activism taking place on many US college campuses in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Artist: Genesis
Title: Back In NYC/Hairless Heart/Counting Out Time
Source: CD: The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Writer(s): Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label: Rhino/Atlantic (original label: Atco)
Year: 1974
The 1974 album The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway marked the beginning of the many changes Genesis would undergo as the band evolved from an art-rock band with a loyal cult following to one of the most popular mainstream bands of the 1980s. It was the band's first double-LP studio album and the first to appear on the Atco label in the US, becoming the band's highest charting album up to that point in time, both in the US and Britain. There were two singles released from the album, the second of which was actually the final part of a three song sequence that begins with one of the group's hardest rocking pieces to date, Back In NYC, proceeds to a quiet instrumental featuring acoustic guitar from Steve Hackett intertwined with Tony Banks's keyboards and concludes with Counting Out Time, the aforementioned single. Not long after the release of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, lead vocalist Peter Gabriel announced his departure from the group, a move that eventually resulted in drummer Phil Collins becoming the band's front man. The rest is history.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: Gonna Run
Source: CD: Watt
Writer(s): Alvin Lee
Label: Chrysalis (original label: Deram)
Year: 1970
The fifth Ten Years After album, Watt, was somewhat unfairly criticized by the rock press for being "more of the same" from the British blues-rock band. When "the same" refers to an album of the calibur of Cricklewood Green, however, that is not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, some tracks, such as Gonna Run, are at least the equal of any song on the previous album, and show a growing awareness on the part of the band of how to use the recording studio creatively.
Artist: Mahogany Rush
Title: IV...(The Emperor)
Source: LP: Mahogany Rush IV
Writer(s): Frank Marino
Label: Columbia
Year: 1976
Although still a power trio, Mahogany Rush began to incorporate other instruments such as synth bass, and on the title track of their fourth album, mellotron. All these were played by Frank Marino, who also played guitars, sang and wrote all the band's material.
Artist: Uriah Heep
Title: Simon The Bullet Freak
Source: British import CD: Salisbury (bonus track originally released only on US version of LP)
Writer(s): Ken Hensley
Label: Sanctuary (original US label: Mercury)
Year: 1971
Uriah Heep combined elements of progressive rock and heavy metal to create a sound that was uniquely their own. The band had two main songwriting sources: the team of vocalist David Byron and guitarist Mick Box, who wrote most of the band's early material, and keyboardist Ken Hensley, whose writing dominated the band's most popular period. The group' second LP, Salisbury, was in many senses a transition album, with the songwriting split about evenly between the two. One of Hensley's compositions, Simon The Bullet Freak, was released in Germany as a B side and included on the US version of the Salisbury album in early 1971. The song made its first UK appearance as the B side of the single version of the title track of the band's third LP, Look At Yourself.
Artist: Santana
Title: No One To Depend On
Source: Mexican import LP: Los Grandes Exitos de Santana (originally released on LP: Santana)
Writer(s): Carabella/Escobida/Rolie
Label: Columbia
Year: 1971
Santana's third LP (which like their debut LP was called simply Santana), was the last by the band's original lineup. Among the better-known tracks on the LP was No One To Depend On, featuring a guitar solo by teen phenom Neal Schon (who would go on to co-found Journey). The song was left off the band's first Greatest Hits album in most countries, but was included on the Mexican version of the LP, Los Grandes Exitos de Santana. It was, at the time, the only time the single version of the song was issued in stereo without the fade in from Batuka, which precedes it on the original LP.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: A Song For Jeffrey
Source: LP: This Was
Writer(s): Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis (original US 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: Triumvirat
Title: Dimplicity
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Fritz/Batherlt
Label: Harvest
Year: 1974
Formed by keyboardist Hans-Jürgen Fritz in Cologne, Germany in 1969, Triumvirat started off doing mostly cover songs in a style heavily influenced by that of Keith Emerson's bands the Nice and later, Emerson, Lake & Palmer. By the early 1970s Triumvirat was doing original material, but still heavily influenced by Emerson. They released their first LP, Mediterranean Tales, in 1972, following it up with Illusions On A Double Dimple in 1974, the same year they did their first US tour, opening for Fleetwood Mac. Dimplicity was the only single from the album released in the US.
Artist: Neil Young
Title: Heart Of Gold
Source: CD: Decade (originally released on LP: Harvest)
Writer: Neil Young
Label: Reprise
Year: 1972
In the liner notes of his 1977 compilation album Decade, Neil Young had this to say about his hit single Heart Of Gold from the 1972 LP Harvest: "This song put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there." As a longtime resident of the ditch myself, I say thankya, Neil.
Artist: Paul Simon
Title: Kodachrome
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1973
Paul Simon's Kodachrome was actually banned on some stations, but not for copyright infringement (Kodachrome being a registered trademark of Kodak). Rather, it was banned for the first line of the song: "When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all." Apparently "crap" offended some programmers, to the point that one station (New York's WABC) even edited the offending line to "When I think back it's a wonder I can think at all" when they played the song. Not only does that line not make any sense, I can only imagine how that must have sounded with almost four measures edited out (but with one beat left in, just to totally throw off the rhythm of the song). Apparently, though, this kind of censorship is what used to make America great, if current political thought is to be believed.
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