Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2004 (starts 1/20/20)

    This week is yet another excursion into the world of early 1970s free-form rock radio, with a dozen (mostly album) tracks from a dozen artists. You have been warned.

Artist:    Mark Fry
Title:    The Witch
Source:    British Import CD: Love, Poetry And Revolution (originally released in Italy on LP: Dreaming With Alice)
Writer(s):    Mark Fry
Label:    Grapefruit (original label: RCA Italian)
Year:    1972
    One of the most obscure albums ever released, Dreaming With Alice is sometimes considered the ultimate example of acid folk. Recorded in 1971 by teenaged British art student Mark Fry, the album includes a track called The Witch, which is described in the book Galactic Ramble as "one of the creepiest songs you'll ever hear". Personally I don't really find anything creepy about it at all, although the track itself is quite hypnotic and highly listenable.
       
Artist:    Traffic
Title:    Stranger To Himself
Source:    LP: John Barleycorn Must Die
Writer(s):    Winwood/Capaldi
Label:    Island (original label: United Artists)
Year:    1970
    Stranger To Himself is one of two songs that Steve Winwood had completed for his first solo album when he decided to instead make a new Traffic album. Rather than recut the song, Winwood included the recording, on which he plays all the instruments himself, as the first track of side two of the fourth Traffic LP, John Barleycorn Must Die.

Artist:    Johnny Winter
Title:    Rock And Roll Hoochie Coo
Source:    European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Johnny Winter And)
Writer(s):    Rick Derringer
Label:    Sony Music (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1970
    Athough best known as a solo Rick Derringer hit, Rock And Roll Hoochie Coo was originally recorded in 1970 by Johnny Winter for the album Johnny Winter And, when Derringer was a member of Winter's band (also known as Johnny Winter And at that time). As can be heard here the arrangement on the earlier version is nearly identical to the hit version, the main differences being Winter's lead vocals and the presence of two lead guitarists in the band.

Artist:    Savoy Brown
Title:    Howling For My Darling
Source:    LP: Lion's Share
Writer(s):    Chester Burnett
Label:    Parrot
Year:    1972
    The eighth Savoy Brown LP, Lion's Share, was the third to feature a lineup that featured, in addition to bandleader Kim Simmonds (guitars, keyboards, harmonica, vocals), three former members of Chicken Shack: Dave Bidwell (drums), Paul Raymond (keyboards, guitars) and Dave Walker (vocals). The Lion's Share lineup also included new member Andy Pyle, who had played with Mick Abraham's band, Blodwyn Pig, on bass. The LP was a bit of a commercial disappointment, however, only hitting #151 on the Billboard album chart (their previous three albums all made the top 100), despite having a fine selection of tunes, including a cover of Howlin' Wolf's Howling For My Darling, which closes out the album.

Artist:    Wishbone Ash
Title:    Lady Whiskey
Source:    CD: Wishbone Ash
Writer(s):    Turner/Turner/Powell/Upton
Label:    MCA (original label: Decca)
Year:    1970
    In its own way, the first Wishbone Ash album rocks out as hard as any album released in 1970, and is certainly one of the better debut LPs in rock history. The band would actually soften their sound a touch for later albums, but on tunes like Lady Whiskey they showed that they could hold their own in a world that included bands like Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and Led Zeppelin.

Artist:    ZZ Top
Title:    Backdoor Love Affair
Source:    LP: The Best Of ZZ Top (originally released on LP: ZZ Top's First Album)
Writer(s):    Gibbons/Ham
Label:    London
Year:    1971
    ZZ Top left no doubt as to where they were coming from with the release of their 1971 debut LP. As Billy Gibbons put it: "We called the record ZZ Top's First Album because we wanted everyone to know that there would be more. We weren't certain if we'd get another chance in the studio, but we had high hopes. We had been together for about six months and were knocking around the bar scene, playing all the usual funky joints. We took the studio on as an extension of the stage show. The basics were all of us playing together in one room, but we didn't want to turn our backs on contemporary recording techniques. To give our sound as much presence and support as possible, we became a little more than a three piece with the advantages of overdubbing. It was the natural kind of support – some rhythm guitar parts, a little bit of texture. That was about it." The result of this approach can be heard on the album's final track, Backdoor Love Affair.

Artist:    Quicksilver Messenger Service
Title:     Cobra
Source:     British import CD: Just For Love
Writer:     John Cipollina
Label:     BGO (original label: Capitol)
Year:     1970
     Quicksilver Messenger Service was able to do something in 1970 that no other band had been able to accomplish. It managed to sign up the world's most famous session man, keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, as a full member. If that wasn't enough, they also rounded up former early member Dino Valenti, newly released from jail in time to participate in the recording of the band's most successful album, Just For Love. Valenti, for various reasons, was fond of using an alias; in fact "Dino Valenti" itself was one, Valenti's birth name actually being Chet Powers. For the Just For Love album, Valenti created yet another alias, Jesse Oris Farrow. All but one of the songs on the album are credited to Farrow, although two of those list Valenti as the songwriter. The lone non-Valenti track is Cobra, an instrumental written by guitarist John Cipollina. The entire album, incidentally, was recorded in Hawaii. Maybe that's how they managed to entice Hopkins to join them.

Artist:    David Bowie
Title:    Saviour Machine
Source:    CD: The Man Who Sold The World
Writer(s):    David Bowie
Label:    Parlophone (original label: Mercury)
Year:    1970
    David Bowie's third album, The Man Who Sold The World, was the first one in which his band played a major role in the development of the songs themselves. Indeed, producer/bassist Tony Visconti later said  "the songs were written by all four of us. We'd jam in a basement, and Bowie would just say whether he liked them or not." According to Bowie's biographer, Peter Doggett, "The band (sometimes with Bowie contributing guitar, sometimes not) would record an instrumental track, which might or might not be based upon an original Bowie idea. Then, at the last possible moment, Bowie would reluctantly uncurl himself from the sofa on which he was lounging with his wife, and dash off a set of lyrics." Bowie himself, however, later said that he was indeed the sole songwriter on the album, as evidenced by the chord changes in the songs themselves. As Bowie put it, "No one writes chord changes like that". Regardless of who actually wrote what, there is no question that The Man Who Sold The World rocked out harder than anything else Bowie had done up to that point (and perhaps never would again), and songs like Saviour Machine, about the pitfalls of turning to a higher power (in this case a omnipotent computer) for solutions to problems, are on a par with what Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin were doing around the same time.
   
Artist:    Captain Beyond
Title:    I Can't Feel Nothin'/As The Moon Speaks/Astral Lady
Source:    LP: Captain Beyond
Writer(s):    Caldwell/Evans
Label:    Capricorn
Year:    1972
    Occasionally someone will ask me a question along the lines of "Who was the best band you ever saw in concert?". My standard answer is Captain Beyond, which usually gets a blank stare in response. I then explain that Captain Beyond was the opening act (of three) at a concert I went to in El Paso in 1972. They so totally blew away the other bands that I can't even remember for sure who the headliner was. Essentially a power trio plus vocalist, Captain Beyond was made up of two former members of Iron Butterfly, guitarist Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt and bassist Lee Dorman, Deep Purple's original lead vocalist, Rod Evans, and drummer Bobby Caldwell, who was known for his work with Johnny Winter and Rick Derringer, among others. The band was so tight that I went out the very next day and bought a copy of their album, something I had never done before. Sure enough, the album was every bit as good as the band's live performance, which followed the exact same setlist as the album itself. I should mention here that, mostly to save space, I shortened the song titles a bit on the title line above. The actual full titles of the tracks heard on this week's show are as follows:
I Can't Feel Nothin' (Part 1)
As the Moon Speaks (to the Waves of the Sea)
Astral Lady
As the Moon Speaks (Return)
I Can't Feel Nothin' (Part 2)
Due to contractual issues, neither Dorman or Reinhardt (who were technically still members of Iron Butterfly) were able to receive songwriting credits on the original album label, although Caldwell has since said that Reinhardt actually co-wrote the songs with Caldwell and Evans, with some input from Dorman.

Artist:    Tommy Bolin
Title:    Homeward Strut
Source:    Japanese import CD: Teaser
Writer(s):    Tommy Bolin
Label:    Sony (original US label: Nemperor
Year:    1975
    Guitarist Tommy Bolin racked up an impressive list of accomplishments during an all too short career. At age 18 he made his recording debut as a member of Zephyr, making two albums with that band before forming his own jazz-rock-blues group Energy at age 20. Energy was unable to secure a recording contract, however, and, after a brief stint with two of his Zephyr bandmates as the 4-Nikators, he replaced Dominic Troiano as the guitarist for the James Gang, appearing on the albums Bang and Miami. Following his departure from the James Gang he found plenty of work as a studio guitarist as well as touring with Carmine Appice and the Good Rats. In 1975, he joined Deep Purple as Ritchie Blackmore's replacement, releasing his first solo LP, Teaser, around the same time as the Purple album Come Taste The Band. Because of his obligations to Deep Purple, he was unable to tour in support of Teaser, which hurt the album's sales, despite the presence of outstanding tracks such as the instrumental Homeward Strut. Bolin released his second solo LP, Private Eyes, in 1976, following the breakup of Deep Purple. Less than three months later Bolin died from a drug overdose, just a few hours after telling Jon Marlowe of the Miami News in an interview that "I've been taking care of myself my whole life. Don't worry about me. I'm  going to be around for a long time.'" Tommy Bolin was 25 years old at the time.

Artist:    Peter Gabriel
Title:    Moribund The Burgermeister
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM single B side (taken from LP: Peter Gabriel)
Writer(s):    Peter Gabriel
Label:    Atco
Year:    1977
    After leaving Genesis, vocalist Peter Gabriel enlisted producer Bob Ezrin, who had previously worked with Alice Cooper, to co-produce his self-titled debut LP. Ezrin assembled a talented group of musicians for the album, including guitarist Robert Fripp of King Crimson, bass player Tony Levin (who would eventually be a member of the 1980s version of King Crimson), drummer Allan Schwartzberg, percussionist Jimmy Maelen, guitarist Steve Hunter, keyboardist Jozef Chirowski and Larry Fast on synthesizers and programming. Gabriel relied heavily on Ezrin to handle the harder rocking aspects of the music (in Gabriel's words "the American" parts), while Gabriel handled the softer passages, much as he had done as a member of Genesis. Both aspects can be heard on Moribund The Burgermeister, a highly theatrical song that was chosen to be the B side of the album's lead single, Solisbury Hill.

Artist:    Buoys
Title:    Timothy
Source:    LP: Sessions (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Rupert Holmes
Label:    RCA Special Products (original label: Scepter)
Year:    1970
    Let's set the record straight, once and for all. According to songwriter Rupert Holmes, Timothy was not a mule. And yes, they ate him.