Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 1925 (starts 6/17/19)

    This week's show comes in three parts: The first is a set of singles and B sides (starting with a couple of alternate versions of song made famous by Three Dog Night). Next we have female voices from the Commonwealth, and finally a set of tunes last heard on our companion show, Stuck in the Psychedelic Era (with a classic Led Zeppelin track thrown in to finish out the show).

Artist:    Randy Newman
Title:    Mama Told Me (Not To Come)
Source:    LP: The Big Ball (originally released on LP: 12 Songs)
Writer(s):    Randy Newman
Label:    Warner Brothers (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1970
    Although it is best known as a Three Dog Night song, Randy Newman's Mama Told Me (Not To Come) was actually written for Eric Burdon, whose version appeared on the album Eric Is Here in early 1967. Newman's own version of the tune, written from the perspective of a strait-laced young man experiencing his first Los Angeles style party, was included on his 1970 LP 12 Songs, which came out at around the same time as Three Dog Night's cover of the tune. Newman's version features slide guitar work from Ry Cooder, supplementing Newman's own piano playing.

Artist:    David Bowie
Title:    It Ain't Easy
Source:    CD: The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
Writer(s):    Ron Davies
Label:    Ryko (original label: RCA Victor)
Year:    1972
    David Bowie had little need to record cover songs. He was, after all, one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century. But when he did record the occasional cover tune, you can bet it was a good one. Take It Ain't Easy, for instance. The song was already well known as the title track of two different albums, one by Three Dog Night and one by Long John Baldry, when Bowie recorded it, yet he still managed to make the song his own. The song itself was written by Nashville songwriter Ron Davies, whose younger sister Gail was the first female producer in country music.

Artist:    Jethro Tull
Title:    A Passion Play- Edit #8
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Ian Anderson
Label:    Chrysalis
Year:    1973
    On the 1971 album Aqualung, Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson took on the religious establishment. The following year the band broke new ground by releasing Thick As A Brick, a single track that took up both sides of a conventional LP record. Both were commercial successes with generally favorable reviews from the rock press. The band's next studio LP, A Passion Play, was another story. Like Thick As A Brick, A Passion Play was one long piece stretched out over an entire album. The problem was that Thick As A Brick was actually a satirical piece that worked on more than one level, while A Passion Play took itself far more seriously. Although commercially successful at first, the album got mostly negative reviews from the rock press, and is generally considered to be the beginning of the band's decline in popularity. As a way of making the album more radio-friendly, a special pressing was sent to stations dividing the piece into 10 numbered edits, with #8 also issued as a single. When it came time for the band to issue a greatest hits album, A Passion Play edit #8 was selected for inclusion. Personally I would have gone with #9, which was issued as the B side of the single. Shows what I know.

Artist:    Billy Preston
Title:    Outa-Space
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Preston/Greene
Label:    A&M
Year:    1972
    As soon as he was finished recording his instrumental piece he called Outa-Space, keyboardist Billy Preston knew he had a hit single on his hands. His label, however, thought differently, and issued the song as the B side of I Wrote A Simple Song in early 1972. It wasn't long before DJs began flipping the record over and playing Outa-Space instead. As a result, Outa-Space became a huge hit, going all the way to the #2 spot on the US charts, while I Wrote A Simple Song only made it to the #77 spot, once again proving that local disc jockeys often know more about audience tastes than record company executives. Too bad there aren't any local disc jockeys in commercial radio anymore, their duties having been taken over by computer algorithms and professional consulting firms.

Artist:    Five Man Electrical Band
Title:    Signs
Source:    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:    Rod Stewear
Title:    True Blue
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM single B side (from LP: Never A Dull Moment)
Writer(s):    Stewart/Wood
Label:    Mercury
Year:    1972
    Rod Stewart and Ron Wood started performing together in 1967, when they were both members of the Jeff Beck Group. When that group disbanded, the two of them joined up with the remnants of the Small Faces to form Faces. Even as Faces was growing in popularity, Stewart was pursuing a parallel solo career. This has led to some confusion over which songs were Faces tunes and which ones were Stewarts. Complicating things further is the fact than most of the members of Faces (including Wood) played on many of Stewart's records, including the hit single You Wear It Well, which appeared on Stewart's 1972 LP Never A Dull Moment. The B side of that single was True Blue, a Stewart/Wood collaboration that also served as Never A Dull Moment's opening track. Things got considerably less confusing in 1975, however, when Wood accepted an invitation to replace Mick Taylor in the Rolling Stones, a position he has held ever since.

Artist:    Pentangle
Title:    A Maid That's Deep In Love
Source:    British import CD: Cruel Sister
Writer(s):    Trad., arr. Pentangle
Label:    Sanctuary (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1970
    By 1970 Pentangle had established itself as one of the world's most successful bands, with their own unique fusion of British folk, jazz and folk-rock. Most groups would have continued in the same vein that got them where they were, but such was the quality and integrity of the band's members that they instead chose to go with a far more traditional approach to their fourth album, Cruel Sister. The album opens with a ballad, A Maid That's Deep In Love, that showcases vocalist Jacqui McShee while showing a musical depth rarely heard in popular music at the time.

Artist:    Renaissance
Title:    Trip To The Fair
Source:    LP: Scheherazade And Other Stories
Writer(s):    Dunford/Thatcher/Tout
Label:    Sire
Year:    1975
    Annie Haslam joined Renaissance in 1971 following an audition in response to an ad in England's Melody Maker magazine and has been an integral part of the band ever since. Her five-octave vocal range helped define the band's sound during its most successful years. Although Haslam was not actively involved in the group's songwriting process, her first date with fellow musician Roy Wood (the Move, Wizzard) inspired the lyrics of Trip To The Fair, which appeared on the 1975 album Scheherazade And Other Stories.

Artist:    Joni Mitchell
Title:    All I Want
Source:    LP: Blue
Writer(s):    Joni Mitchell
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1971
    All I Want is one of two last minute additions to Joni Mitchell's fourth album, Blue, replacing two older songs that had originally been slated to appear on the album. The song was written to and for James Taylor, who Mitchell was in a relationship with at the time. The 1971 album is often cited as Mitchell's best; indeed NPR ranks it as the best album ever made by a woman (Mitchell produced Blue herself).

Artist:    Al Kooper/Stephen Stills/Harvey Brooks/Eddie Hoh
Title:    You Don't Love Me
Source:    LP: Super Session
Writer(s):    Willie Cobb
Label:    Sundazed/Columbia
Year:    1968
    You Don't Love Me was originally recorded and released as a single by Willie Cobbs in 1960. Although the song is credited solely to Cobbs, it strongly resembles a 1955 Bo Diddley B side, She's Fine She's Mine, in its melody, lyrics and repeated guitar riff. The Cobbs single was a regional hit on the Mojo label in Memphis, but stalled out nationally after being reissued on Vee-Jay Records, due to the label pulling promotional support from the song due to copyright issues. A 1965 version by Junior Wells with Buddy Guy saw some minor changes in the lyrics to the song; it was this version that was covered by Al Kooper and Stephen Stills for the 1968 Super Session album. The recording extensively uses an effect called flanging, a type of phase-shifting that was first used in stereo on the Jimi Hendrix Experience track Bold As Love.

Artist:    Cream
Title:    Doing That Scrapyard Thing
Source:    CD: Goodbye Cream
Writer(s):    Bruce/Brown
Label:    Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year:    1969
    In its original form, the album Goodbye Cream had three new studio tracks on it, one for each member of the band. Jack Bruce's contribution was Doing That Scrapyard Thing, co-written (as were the majority of Bruce's compositions) by poet Pete Brown. Lyrics don't get much more psychedelic than this.

Artist:    Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Title:    Carry On
Source:    CD: Déjà Vu
Writer(s):    Stephen Stills
Label:    Atlantic
Year:    1970
    Carry On, the opening track from the Crosby, Still, Nash & Young album Déjà Vu, is a Stephen Stills song that incorporates lyrics from an earlier piece, Questions, which appeared on the third Buffalo Springfield album, Last Time Around. The song was the fourth single released from Déjà Vu, but failed to make the top 40 (which only reinforces my belief that top 40 radio had outlived its usefulness by 1970).

Artist:    Led Zeppelin
Title:    The Song Remains The Same
Source:    CD: Houses Of The Holy
Writer(s):    Page/Plant
Label:    Atlantic
Year:    1973
    The Song Remains The Same was originally meant to be an instrumental overture to open the band's fifth album, Houses Of The Holy. Vocalist Robert Plant, however, had different ideas, and added what has been called his tribute to world music, expressing a belief in music as a universal language. A couple of the track's original elements survived, however. The song still serves as the opening track for the album, and is still followed immediately by The Rain Song. The two were often performed in sequence at the band's concerts as well. The Song Remains The Same is also the name of Led Zeppelin's legendary concert film as well.