Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 1745 (starts 11/8/17)

A whole bunch of tunes making their debut this week, including the entire first half of the show. Really, it doesn't get much deeper than this.

Artist:    Mothers
Title:    I'm The Slime
Source:    CD: Over-Nite Sensation
Writer(s):    Frank Zappa
Label:    Discreet
Year:    1973
    In 1973, Frank Zappa, along with an array of talented musicians, recorded two albums' worth of material. The first, released as a Mothers album, was Over-Nite Sensation. Strangely enough, a single was released from the album, although it really didn't make much of a dent in the top 40 charts. That single was I'm The Slime, a song that only gets more relevant as time goes on. The song is basically a description of America's top drug of choice, as the opening lyrics make clear: "I am gross and perverted. I'm obsessed 'n deranged. I have existed for years, but very little has changed. I'm the tool of the government and industry too, for I am destined to rule and regulate you. I may be vile and pernicious, but you can't look away. I make you think I'm delicious, with the stuff that I say. I'm the best you can get. Have you guessed me yet? I'm the slime ooozing out of your TV set."

Artist:    Mahavishnu Orchestra   
Title:    Meeting Of The Spirits
Source:    European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: The Inner Mounting Flame)
Writer(s):    John McLaughlin
Label:    Sony Music (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1971
    John McLaughlin was already making waves in the music world by the time he began (with the help of Columbia Records head Clive Davis) to form the Mahavishnu Orchestra. The group was one of the earliest jazz-rock fusion bands, and featured several futures stars of the genre, including keyboardist Jan Hammer and drummer Billy Cobham, as well as former Flock violinist Jerry Goodman (who was recruited by Davis himself). The band was filled out by bassist Rick Laird and, of course, McLaughlin himself, who wrote all the material for the band, including Meeting Of The Spirits, the opening track from the group's first LP, The Inner Mounting Flame.   

Artist:    Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso
Title:    Chorale (From Tracia's Theme)/L'Albero Del Pane (The Bread Tree)
Source:    LP: Banco
Writer(s):    DiGiacomo/Nocenzi
Label:    Manticore
Year:    1975
    The brand of progressive rock favored by bands such as Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and early Genesis (often referred to as art-rock) was particularly popular in Italy, the traditional home of opera. In fact, the country produced progressive rock bands of its own as well, including Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso (Bank of Mutual Support), which is still in existence. The band originally consisted of:
 •    Pierluigi Calderoni - drums and percussion
•    Vittorio Nocenzi - organ, synthesizers, electronic strings
•    Renato D'Angelo - bass guitar, acoustic guitar
•    Rodolfo Maltese - electric guitar, acoustic guitar, trumpet, backing vocals
•    Gianni Nocenzi - grand piano, clarinet and synthesizer
•    Francesco Di Giacomo - lead vocals
It was this lineup that released the 1975 album Banco in the US. Di Giacomo's opera-styled vocals were a key component of the band's sound, as can be heard on the LP's opening tracks, Chorale (From Tracia's Theme)/L'Albero Del Pane (The Bread Tree).

Artist:    James Gang
Title:    Standing In The Rain
Source:    LP: Bang
Writer(s):    Tommy Bolin
Label:    Atco
Year:    1973
    Tommy Bolin was already becoming well-known among his fellow musicians by the time he was asked to replace Dominic Troiano as the James Gang's lead guitarist. The band had pretty much dropped off the radio after the departure of original lead guitarist Joe Walsh, and had been dropped by the ABC label following their fifth studio LP. Bolin's presence, however, helped secure the band a new contract with Atco Records, with their 6th LP, Bang, being released on the label in 1973. Although Roy Kenner provided most of the album's lead vocals, Bolin's presence dominated the album right from the first track, Standing In The Rain (a Bolin composition). Bolin would stick around for one more album before departing for a solo career in 1975.

Artist:    Free
Title:    Wishing Well
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM promo single (from LP: Heartbreaker)
Writer(s):    Rodgers/Kirke/Yamauchi/Bundrick/Kossoff
Label:    Island
Year:    1972
    The final album from Free featured a somewhat altered lineup from their previous albums. Bassist (and one of the band's primary songwriters) Andy Fraser had already left the band, while guitarist/keyboardist Paul Kossoff was often incapacitated due to his Quaalude addiction. As a result, several guest musicians, as well as a couple of more permanent replacement members, make an appearance on Heartbreaker. With Fraser gone, lead vocalist Paul Rodgers took on the bulk of the band's songwriting duties, although the official writing credit on several tracks, including the single Wishing Well, went to the entire band membership. Following a US tour (without Kossoff), the band finally called it quits, with Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke remaining together to form a new band, Bad Company.

Artist:    Black Sabbath
Title:    After Forever
Source:    LP: Black Sabbath
Writer(s):    Butler/Iommi
Label:    Warner Brothers
Year:    1971
    Anyone attempting to portray Black Sabbath as a bunch of Satanists had only to listen once to After Forever, from the Master Of Reality album, to be abused of the notion. The lyrics, written by bassist Geezer Butler (an avowed Catholic) are actually about as un-subtle as can be imagined. The song was released as the first single from the album, but failed to chart.

Artist:    T2
Title:    Careful Sam
Source:    Mono British import CD: Love, Poetry And Revolution
Writer(s):    Peter Dunton
Label:    Grapefruit
Year:    Recorded 1970, released 2013
    T2, consisting of drummer Peter Dunton, bassist Bernie Jinks and guitarist Keith Cross, released only one album, It'll All Work Out In Boomland, in 1970. The album did not get much support from their label (British Decca) and plans for a second LP were scrapped before any new material got beyond the demo stage. One of those demo tapes, however, finally surfaced on a CD set called Love, Poetry And Revolution on the Grapefruit label in 2013. Written by Dunton, the track has some outstanding guitar work from Cross.

Artist:    Grand Funk Railroad
Title:    In Need
Source:    CD: Grand Funk
Writer(s):    Mark Farner
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1969
    Anyone who wants to know just what made Grand Funk Railroad the most popular arena rock band of the early 1970s needs only listen to GFR's second album, Grand Funk (usually just referred to as the Red Album). The 1969 album is pure...well, pure Grand Funk Railroad. It's loud, it's messy and, most importantly, it rocks. Hard. Case in point: In Need.

Artist:    Blood, Sweat And Tears
Title:    I Can't Quit Her
Source:    LP: Child Is Father To The Man
Writer(s):    Kooper/Levine
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1968
    Following his departure from the Blues Project in early 1967, Al Kooper, after a brief appearance at the Monterey International Pop Festival with a pickup band, found himself a job as a staff producer at Columbia's New York studios. Like many Columbia producers, Kooper found time to come up with a studio project of his own. One of the reasons he had left the Blues Project was a disagreement with band leader Danny Kalb over whether to supplement the band's sound with a horn section. Kooper used his position to put together a new group that did indeed have a horn section: Blood, Sweat And Tears. In its original incarnation, Kooper handled both keyboards and lead vocals (although Steve Katz reprised his Blues Project role as the George Harrison of the band, singing on his own compositions). Kooper's material on Child Is Father To The Man resembles his later solo work on tracks like I Can't Quit Her, which opens side two of the LP.

Artist:     Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:     Can You See Me
Source:     CD: Live At Monterey (originally released on LP: Historic Performances Recorded at the Monterey International Pop Festival)
Writer:     Jimi Hendrix
Label:     UMe (original label: Reprise)
Year:     1967
     The first great rock festival was held in Monterey, California, in June of 1967. Headlined by the biggest names in the folk-rock world (the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, the Mamas and the Papas, Simon & Garfunkel), the festival also served to showcase the talent coming out of the nearby San Francisco Bay area and introduced an eager US audience to several up and coming international artists, such as Ravi Shankar, Hugh Masakela, the Who, and Eric Burdon's new Animals lineup. Two acts in particular stole the show: the soulful Otis Redding, who was just starting to cross over from a successful R&B career to the mainstream charts, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, formed in England in late 1966 by a former member of the US Army and two British natives. The recordings sat on the shelf for three years and were finally released less than a month before Hendrix's untimely death in 1970. Among the songs the Experience performed at Monterey was a Hendrix composition called Can You See Me. The song had appeared on the band's first LP in the UK, but had been left off the US version of Are You Experienced. An early concert favorite, Can You See Me seems to have been permanently dropped from the band's setlist after the Monterey performance.

Artist:    Jean-Luc Ponty
Title:    Tarantula
Source:    LP: Imaginary Voyage
Writer(s):    Jean-Luc Ponty
Label:    Atlantic
Year:    1976
    Touted by jazz critics as being "the first jazz violinist to be as exciting as a saxophonist', Jean-Luc Ponty released his first solo album in 1964 at the age of 22. He remained virtually unknown outside of his native France, however, until the early 1970s, when he emigrated to the United States to become a member of Frank Zappa's Mothers Of Invention. This in turn led to Ponty gaining a crossover audience just as the jazz-rock fusion movement was gaining ground in the US. His 1976 LP, Imaginary Voyage, is considered one of the defining works of the genre, thanks to tracks like Tarantula, which closes out the first side of the original LP.