Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 1641 (starts 10/12/16)

Artist:     Grand Funk Railroad
Title:     Sin's A Good Man's Brother
Source:     CD: Closer To Home
Writer:     Mark Farner
Label:     Capitol
Year:     1970
     Flint, Michigan, in the mid-1960s was home to a popular local band called Terry Knight and the Pack. In 1969 pack guitarist Mark Farner and drummer Don Brewer hooked up with Mel Schacher (the former bassist of ? and the Mysterians) to form Grand Funk Railroad, with Terry Knight himself managing and producing the new band. With a raw, garage-like sound played at record high volume, Grand Funk immediately earned the condemnation of virtually every rock critic in existence. Undeterred by bad reviews, the band took their act to the road, foregoing the older venues such as bars, ballrooms and concert halls, instead booking entire sports arenas for their concerts. In the process they almost single-handedly created a business model that continues to be the industry standard. Grand Funk Railroad consistently sold out all of their performances for the next two years, earning no less than three gold records in 1970 alone.

Artist:    Grand Funk Railroad
Title:    Gimme Shelter
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    Starline (original label: Capitol)
Year:    1971
    It takes cojones to record a cover version of one of the  Rolling Stones' most popular (and critically acclaimed) songs. It takes even more to do it just two years after the Stones version came out. But then, we are talking about Grand Funk Railroad, who have to be considered one of the most ballsy bands in rock history. The single version of Grand Funk's version of Gimme Shelter runs almost two minutes shorter than the version heard on the Survival album, and if you listen closely you can hear a particularly sloppy edit in the middle of Mark Farner's last guitar solo toward the end of the song.

Artist:    Hot Tuna
Title:    Half/Time Saturation
Source:    LP: Yellow Fever
Writer(s):    Kaukonen/Casady/Steeler
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. The second of these three was Yellow Fever. As can be heard on the track Half/Time Saturation, they certainly succeeded.

Artist:    Aerosmith
Title:    Walking The Dog
Source:    CD: Aerosmith
Writer(s):    Rufus Thomas
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1973
    The last track on Aerosmith's eponymous debut LP is a cover of Rufus Thomas's biggest hit, Walking The Dog. Probably not coincidentally, the song was also covered by Aerosmith's idols, the Rolling Stones, on their debut album.

Artist:    James Gang
Title:    Must Be Love
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Bolin/Cook
Label:    Atco
Year:    1974
    One thing you have to say for the James Gang: they did not give up easily. After losing their star, guitarist/vocalist Joe Walsh, in 1971, the remaining two members of the band, drummer Jim Fox and bassist Dale Peters, could have just called it quits. Instead, they recruited vocalist Roy Kenner and guitarist Dominic Troiano for a pair of albums that really didn't make much of an impression, either critically or commercially. After Troiano left in early 1974 they lost their contract with ABC Records, but once again, the James Gang refused to surrender. Instead they found guitarist Tommy Bolin (formerly of Zephyr) and landed a contract with the Atco label. The first James Gang album with Bolin, was considered their strongest effort since Walsh's departure, thanks to tracks like Must Be Love. The song, co-written by Bolin, was also issued as a single in 1974. Bolin would go on to even greater fame, both as a solo artist and as a member of Deep Purple (temporarily replacing Richie Blackmore) before succumbing to a drug overdose in his late 20s.

Artist:    Five Man Electrical Band
Title:    Signs
Source:    Simulated stereo 45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Les Emerson
Label:    Lionel
Year:    1971
    Everybody has at least one song they have fond memories of hearing on the radio while riding around in a friend's car on a hot summer evening. Signs, from Canada's Five Man Electrical Band, is one of mine.

Artist:    Peter Frampton
Title:    Penny For Your Thoughts/(I'll Give You) Money
Source:    LP: Frampton Comes Alive
Writer(s):    Peter Frampton
Label:    A&M
Year:    1976
    Most artists establish themselves with a series of studio recordings (generally including a hit single or two) before releasing a live album featuring performances of their most popular songs. Peter Frampton would have done that as well, except for the fact that his four studio albums preceding Frampton Comes Alive were all commercial flops. To be honest, before 1976 most people had never even heard of Peter Frampton, let alone any of his music. Yet, despite all this, Frampton Comes Alive is one of the most successful live albums ever recorded; in fact, it was the best selling album of 1976 and was among the top 20 sellers of 1977 as well. The album produced three hit singles, one of which, Do You Feel Like I Do, ran over seven minutes in length in edited form (the album version was more than 14 minutes long).The B side of that single was a short acoustic instrumental piece called Penny For Your Thoughts, which on the album segues directly into the hard-rocking (I'll Give You) Money.

Artist:    Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young
Title:    Almost Cut My Hair
Source:    LP: déjà vu
Writer(s):    David Crosby
Label:    Atlantic
Year:    1970
    Almost Cut My Hair could have been the longest track on the Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young album déjà vu. As originally recorded it ran about 10 minutes in length. However, it was decided to fade the cut out starting at around the four-minute mark, leaving Neil Young's Country Girl (which was actually a suite of song fragments) as the longest track on the LP. Nonetheless, even at its shorter-than-recorded released length, David Crosby's counter-cultural anthem stands out as one of the band's most memorable recordings, and is arguably the single track that best incorporates Neil Young's unique lead guitar style into a group that is known mostly for its vocal harmonies.

Artist:    Stevie Wonder
Title:    Living For The City
Source:    LP: Innervisions
Writer(s):    Stevie Wonder
Label:    Tamla
Year:    1973
    As good as the single version of Living For The City (which was a huge hit in 1973) was, it pales in comparison to the original LP version of the Stevie Wonder classic. The longer version incorporates a bit of audio theater depicting a man boarding a bus bound for New York City. On his arrival he is handed a package by a street hustler with instructions to deliver it to someone nearby. The man is immediately arrested and given a long prison sentence for drug trafficking. The track, taken as a whole, paints a bleak picture of Afro-American life in the 1970s.

\Artist:    Janis Joplin
Title:    Move Over
Source:    CD: Pearl
Writer(s):    Janis Joplin
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1971
    1970 had been a good year for Janis Joplin. She had disbanded the disappointing Kozmik Blues Band and was nearing completion of a new album (Pearl) with a new group (the Full Tilt Boogie Band) and a new producer (Paul Rothchild), who was entirely supportive of her musical abilities. Unlike previous bands, Joplin's new group spent considerable time in the studio working on material for the album, often developing the arrangements with the tape machines running, much like Jimi Hendrix was known to do. The resulting album was musically far tighter than her previous efforts, with a mixture of cover songs and original material such as the opening track, Move Over, written by Joplin herself. Sadly, Joplin's problems ran deeper than just musical issues and she did not live to see her final album completed.

Artist:    Deep Purple
Title:    Child In Time
Source:    CD: The Very Best Of Deep Purple
Writer(s):    Blackmore/Gillan/Glover/Lord/Paice
Label:    Warner Brothers
Year:    1970
    One of the most powerful antiwar songs ever recorded, Child In Time appeared on the LP Deep Purple In Rock. The album is generally considered to be the beginning of the band's "classic" period and features the lineup of Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Ian Gillan (vocals), Roger Glover (bass), Jon Lord (keyboards) and Ian Paice (drums). The song itself (which runs over ten minutes in length) was a mainstay of early 70s rock radio stations, but is rarely heard on modern classic rock stations.