Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 1724 (starts 6/14/17)

Somehow I managed to squeeze 13 songs in this week. Not sure how, though, since no less than four of them hit the five minute mark. Still, here they are. Enjoy!

Artist:    Spirit
Title:    Fresh Garbage
Source:    CD: The Best Of Spirit (originally released on LP: Spirit)
Writer(s):    Jay Ferguson
Label:    Epic (original label: Ode)
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:      David Bowie
Title:     Space Oddity
Source:      45 RPM single (originally released on LP: Space Oddity)
Writer:    David Bowie
Label:     RCA Victor
Year:     1969
     When David Jones first started his recording career he was a fairly conventional folk singer. With Space Oddity he became David Bowie (or maybe Ziggy Stardust) and the rock world was never quite the same.

Artist:    American Dream
Title:    Future's Folly
Source:    CD: The American Dream
Writer(s):    Van Winkle/Jameson/Indelicato
Label:    Ampex
Year:    1970
    OK, I have to admit that I know very little about the album and band called The American Dream, which was included as an unexpected free gift that came along with a vintage vinyl copy of an album I bought online. Here's what I do know. The American Dream was from Philadelphia. The album was produced by Todd Rundgren. In fact, it was his first time producing a group that he himself was not a member of. Finally, these guys were actually pretty good. How good? Well, take a listen to Future's Folly, which is fairly representative of the album itself, and decide for yourself.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix
Title:    Angel
Source:    LP: The Cry Of Love
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1970
    Shortly after the untimely death of Jimi Hendrix in September of 1970, Reprise released the first of many posthumous Hendrix albums, The Cry Of Love. Like millions of other Hendrix fans, I immediately went out and bought a copy. I have to say that there are very few songs that have ever brought tears to my eyes, and even fewer that did so on my very first time hearing them. Of these, Angel tops the list.

Artist:    Steely Dan
Title:    Peg
Source:    CD: Aja
Writer(s):    Becker/Fagen
Label:    MCA (original label: ABC)
Year:    1977
    Steely Dan's Peg, from the 1977 album Aja, is a study in perfectionism. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen recorded solos by seven different studio guitarists (including Robben Ford and Larry Carlton) before deciding on the version by Jay Graydon. Although Becker and Fagen have never said specifically who the song is about, it is thought to be inspired by actress Peg Entwistle, who is best known for committing suicide by jumping off the Hollywoodland sign in 1932. The Aja album itself has long been used by audiophiles to test their systems due to its high production standards, and was Steely Dan's best selling album. 

Artist:    Queen
Title:    Teo Torriate (Let Us Cling Together)
Source:    LP: A Day At The Races (promo copy)
Writer(s):    Brian May
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1976
    Just when you thought you had heard everything Queen had to offer, they start singing in Japanese. Teo Torriate (Let Us Cling Together), from Queen's fifth studio LP, A Day At The Races, was written by Brian May as a tribute to the band's Japanese fans, and was performed live in Tokyo on more than one occasion. May plays piano, plastic piano and harmonium on the song.

Artist:    Patti Smith
Title:    Redondo Beach
Source:    LP: Horses
Writer(s):    Smith/Sohl/Kaye
Label:    Arista
Year:    1975
    Redondo Beach is the second track on the first Patti Smith LP, Horses. It was first published as a poem in Smith's 1972 book "kodak" under the title Radando Beach. The song, set to a reggae beat, tells the story of a young woman who commits suicide by walking into the ocean following an argument with her lover. Smith later said the lyrics were written following a fight with her sister Linda.

Artist:    Doobie Brothers
Title:    Road Angel
Source:    CD: What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits
Writer(s):    Johnston/Hossack/Hartman/Porter
Label:    Warner Brothers
Year:    1974
    Most of the songs on the fourth Doobie Brothers album, What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits, were written by either Tom Johnston or Patrick Simmons, with only a couple of exceptions. One of those was Road Angel, which is credited to the entire band. It is also one of the hardest rocking tracks on the album.

Artist:    Paul Simon
Title:    Loves Me Like A Rock
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s):    Paul Simon
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1973
    Paul Simon was always one to try new things with his music, even before embarking on a solo career in 1970. One of his more notable experiments was to record Loves Me Like A Rock in 1973 with a genuine gospel group, the Dixie Hummingbirds. Although the lyrics are more secular in nature, the Hummingbirds were reportedly eager to record with Simon, and even released their own version of the song later the same year. Simon's version was a huge hit, barely missing the top spot on the charts, and remaining in the US top 40 for fourteen weeks.

Artist:    Marvin Gaye
Title:    Don't Mess With Mister "T"
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Marvin Gaye
Label:    Tamla
Year:    1972
    1972 was a pivotal year for Motown. It was the year that the label shifted its operations from Detroit to its new Hollwood studios, sometimes known as "Hitsville West". It was also the year that a new contract, negotiated following the success of What's Going On, made Marvin Gaye the highest-paid performer in R&B history up to that point, as well as giving him total artistic freedom. Gaye used that freedom to compose his first and only film soundtrack. Part of the reason for Motown's move to Hollywood was to cash in on the popular "blacksploitation" movie trend started by the film Shaft the previous year. The label secured the rights to the crime thriller Trouble Man, and asked Gaye if he would be interested in writing the music for it. He ended up producing the entire soundtrack for the film as well, recording all the music at Motown's studios. The album was a critical success, and further enhanced Gayes reputation as one of the leading figures on the early 1970s music scene.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    L.A. Woman
Source:    CD: Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mine (originally released on LP: L.A. Woman)
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1971
    Ray Manzarek became justifiably famous as the keyboard player for the Doors. Before joining up with Jim Morrison, Robby Krieger and John Densmore, however, Manzarek was already making a name for himself as an up-and-coming student filmmaker at UCLA. Although he didn't have much of a need to pursue a career in films once the Doors hit it big, he did end up producing and directing an outstanding video for the title track of the 1971 album L.A. Woman years after the band had split up. I only mention this because, really, what else can I say about a song that you've probably heard a million times or so?

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    For You Blue
Source:    LP: Let It Be
Writer(s):    George Harrison
Label:    Apple
Year:    1970
    I'll be honest here. My least favorite Beatles album has always been Let It Be. I've always felt that Phil Spector's over-the-top production style obscured what was a fairly decent set of tunes. One of the songs on the album that Spector didn't ruin, however, was For You Blue. Perhaps it was because For You Blue is basically a blues number, which is a genre that falls so far from Spector's area of expertise that he probably didn't have a clue what to do with the song and pretty much left it as is.

Artist:    Grand Funk Railroad
Title:    Into The Sun
Source:    CD: On Time
Writer(s):    Mark Farner
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1969
    One of my fondest memories of the year I graduated high school was moving to the tiny town of Mangum, Oklahoma for the summer. I was up there to take a shot at rock stardom with a band called Sunn, a group that I had been a founding member of in my junior year of high school. The band had its own road manager, a local guy named Gary Dowdy who was home from college for the summer and drove a red '54 Ford panel truck missing its front grille. In addition to being our main equipment van, "The Glump", as Dowdy called it, was our source of daily transportion around town. It's best feature was an 8-track tape system that Dowdy had installed himself. One of the tapes we listened to most often was Grand Funk Railroad's debut album, On Time. In fact, I don't really recall us listening to any other tapes but that one and the band's second album, Grand Funk. As a result, I pretty much know every song on the album by heart, even though I did not have my own copy of On Time until 2013, when I found a somewhat ratty old copy of the LP at a store in Syracuse, NY, that sells used records. More recently I managed to find a new CD copy of the album, so we get to listen to Into The Sun, the opening track from side two of the original album, without all the ticks and pops.