Sunday, July 25, 2021

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2131 (starts 7/26/21)

https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/378766-dc-2131


    This week we have several songs getting a second look on the show, as well as a couple of old favorites and a few that haven't been featured on Rockin' in the Days of Confusion before at all.

Artist:    Grand Funk Railroad
Title:    Time Machine
Source:    CD: On Time
Writer:    Mark Farner
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1969
    Universally panned by the rock press, the first Grand Funk Railroad album, On Time, was at best a moderate success when it was first released. Thanks to the band's extensive touring, however, GFR had built up a sizable following by the time their self-titled follow up LP (aka the Red Album) was released in 1970. That year, Grand Funk Railroad became the first rock band to chalk up four gold albums in the same year, with Closer To Home and their double-LP live album joining the first two studio albums. One of the most popular tracks from On Time was Time Machine, which captures the essence of the band's early years.

Artist:    Spirit
Title:    Fresh Garbage
Source:    European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Spirit)
Writer(s):    Jay Ferguson
Label:    Sony Music (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 rather bouncy rock tune 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:    Jimi Hendrix/Gypsy Sun And Rainbows
Title:    Foxy Lady
Source:    CD: Live At Woodstock
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Experience Hendrix/Legacy
Year:    1969
    Jimi Hendrix's new ensemble, Gypsy Sun And Rainbows, had only had time for a couple of rehearsals when they took the stage at Woodstock on the morning of August 18,1969, and had spent that time trying to develop new material rather than work on songs that had already been previously recorded by the original Jimi Hendrix Experience. Still, they had to fill up stage time, and so, without ever having played them as a group, the band knocked out credible versions of old favorites like Foxy Lady. Of course, having Mitch Mitchell in the group helped considerably, and Billy Cox had known Hendrix for years and was familiar with the material as well. Due as much to technical issues as anything else, the performances of the other three members of the band, guitarist Larry Lee and percussionists Juma Sultan and Jerry Velez, were pretty much inaudible on the recording of the gig.

Artist:    Savoy Brown
Title:    Leavin' Again
Source:    CD: Looking In
Writer(s):    Simmonds/Peverett
Label:    Deram (original label: Parrot)
Year:    1970
    There are several similarities between Fleetwood Mac and Savoy Brown. Both started out recording covers of American blues artists almost exclusively. Both were originally led by talented guitarists (Peter Green and Kim Simmonds, respectively) whose first love was very obviously the blues. Both bands ended up going through many lineup changes over the years, as they slowly became more rock-oriented. That's where the similarity ends, however. Whereas Green decided to leave Fleetwood Mac altogether following the 1969 LP Then Play On, Simmonds instead tightened his reins on the group in order to keep them rooted in the blues, aided in his efforts by lead vocalist Chris Youlden. After Youlden left the group for a solo career, however, the remaining band members asserted their desire to play more rock, as can be heard on tracks like Leavin' Again, from the 1970 album Looking In. Simmonds, however, wasn't having any of it and dismissed the entire band following the release of Looking In and hiring several members of Chicken Shack to continue in a more blues-oriented direction. As for the dismissed members of Savoy Brown (Dave Peverett, Roger Earl and Tone Stevens), they went off and formed their own band: Foghat.

Artist:    Rod Stewart
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 Stewart's. 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:    Supersister
Title:    No Tree Will Grow (On Too High A Mountain)
Source:    British import CD: Spirit Of Joy (originally released in Holland on LP: To The Highest Bidder)
Writer(s):    Robert Jan Stips
Label:    Polydor
Year:    1971
    When the subject of Dutch progressive rock bands comes up, usually the first group to come to mind is Focus. After all, their best known tune, Hocus Pocus, still gets a decent amount of exposure on classic rock radio. But Focus was not the first prog-rock band to come from the Netherlands. That honor goes to Supersister. Formed in 1965 at the Grotius College in the Hague as the Blubs by drummer Marco Vrolijk and keyboardist Robert Jan Stips, the band was known as Sweet OK Supersister by 1967, and had shortened their name to Supersister by the time they released their debut LP, Present From Nancy, in 1970. Infuential British DJ John Peel began to give the group exposure on his BBC show, and in 1971 the band's second album, To The Highest Bidder, became their first to be released in the UK. One of the featured tracks on the album was the seven and a half minute long No Tree Will Grow (On Too High A Mountain), which was also released, in edited form, as a single.

Artist:    Focus
Title:    Harem Scarem
Source:    45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s):    Thijs van Leer
Label:    Atco
Year:    1974
    From a purely artistic perspective, Focus's 1974 album Hamburger Concerto is one of the Amsterdam band's best efforts. However, none of the tracks on the album had the commercial appeal of songs like Hocus Pocus of Sylvia. The nearest it came was keyboardist Thijs van Leer's composition Harem Scarem, which had to be edited from its nearly six minute LP length down to slighly more than three minutes for single release. The song failed to get any top 40 airplay, however.

Artist:    Al Kooper/Stephen Stills/Harvey Brooks/Eddie Hoh
Title:    Season Of The Witch
Source:    LP: Super Session
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Sundazed/Columbia
Year:    1968
            In 1968 Columbia Records staff producer Al Kooper, who had also been the keyboardist of the Blues Project, formed a new group he called Blood, Sweat and Tears. Then, after recording one album with the new group, he promptly quit the band. He then booked studio time and called in his friend Michael Bloomfield (who had just left own his new band the Electric Flag) for a recorded jam session. Due to his chronic insomnia and inclination to use heroin to deal with said insomnia, Bloomfield was unable to record an entire album's worth of material, and Kooper called in another friend, Stephen Stills (who had recently left the Buffalo Springfield) to complete the project. The result was the Super Session album, which surprisingly (considering that it was the first album of its kind), made the top 10 album chart. One of the most popular tracks on Super Session was an extended version of Donovan's "Season of the Witch", featuring Stills using a wah-wah pedal (a relatively new invention at the time). Kooper initially felt that the basic tracks needed some sweetening, so he brought in a horn section to record additional overdubs.

Artist:    Styx
Title:    A Day
Source:    LP: Styx II
Writer(s):    John Curulewski
Label:    Wooden Nickel
Year:    1973
    Although Dennis DeYoung was responsible for writing most of Styx's material, there were a few exceptions, including A Day from the album Styx II. Written and sung by keyboardist and founding member John Curulewski, A Day is a considerably more dark and moody piece that anything else on the LP, although it does have a faster section in the middle featuring some nice harmony guitar leads from Curulewski and James "JY" Young. I've always considered it one of the best tracks on the album.

Artist:    Coloured Balls
Title:    Sitting Bull
Source:    Australian import CD: Heavy Metal Kid
Writer(s):    Lobby Lloyd
Label:    Aztec (original label: EMI)
Year:    1974
    Lobby Loyde, although a guitar legend in Australia, is virtually unknown in the US. This is a shame, since he, in the words of former bandmate Angry Anderson, "helped create the Australian guitar sound, long before Angus [Young]. Lobby inspired Australian bands to step forward and play as loud and aggressively as they could." Born in 1941, Loyde had hit singles in Australia as a member of Purple Hearts and later Wild Cherries, and was a major force on the Australian pub rock scene in the 1970s. Loyde released two albums as a member of Coloured Balls, which also featured Andrew Fordham on guitar and vocals, Janis Miglans on bass guitar and Trevor Young on drums. Sitting Bull, from the 1974 album Heavy Metal Kid, may not have the most politically correct opening riff, but is a solid showcase for Lloyd's prowess on guitar.

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