https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/381331-dc-2134
Our free-form summer continues this week with tracks from Spirit, Yes, Uriah Heep, King Crimson and many other favorites from the early 1970s.
Artist: Spirit
Title: Nature's Way/Animal Zoo/Love Has Found A Way/Why Can't I Be Free
Source: CD: Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus
Writer(s): California/Ferguson/Locke
Label: Epic/Legacy
Year: 1970
Spirit was one of those bands that consistently scored well with the critics, yet was never truly able to connect with a large segment of the record buying audience at any given time. Perhaps their best album was Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus, released in 1970 to glowing reviews. Despite this, the album actually charted lower than any of their three previous efforts, and would be the last to feature the band's original lineup. In the long haul, however, Twelve Dreams has become the group's top selling album, thanks to steady catalog sales over a period of years. Unlike many more popular records of the time, Twelve Dreams sounds as fresh and original today as when it first appeared, as can be easily heard on the four-song medley that makes up the bulk of the LP's first side. Indeed, despite never having charted as a single, Nature's Way, a Randy California tune which starts the sequence, is one of the best-known songs in the entire Spirit catalog. Additionally, its ecological theme segues naturally into Animal Zoo, a Jay Ferguson tune with a more satirical point of view. Love Has Found A Way, written by vocalist Ferguson and keyboardist John Locke, can best described as psychedelic space jazz, while Why Can't I Be Free is a simple, yet lovely, short coda from guitarist California. Although Spirit, in various incarnations, would continue to record for many years, they would never put out another album as listenable as Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus.
Artist: Kinks
Title: God's Children
Source: CD: The Kink Kronikles (originally released in UK on 7" 33 1/3 RPM EP: From the soundtrack of the film "Percy")
Writer(s): Ray Davies
Label: Reprise (original label: Pye)
Year: 1971
The final Kinks album released on the Pye label in the UK was the soundtrack album for a film called Percy. In addition to the LP, Pye issued a four-song EP from the album as well, promoted as a "maxi-single", perhaps the first ever use of the term. The opening track from both the album and the EP was God's Children; the song was also released as a single in the UK but did not chart. None of these records, by the way, were ever given a North American release, resulting in the Percy soundtrack being the best selling Kinks import album in the US for several years.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Wond'ring Aloud
Source: CD: Aqualung
Writer: Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis (original US label: Reprise)
Year: 1971
If the first three Jethro Tull albums can be considered steps on a path, then Aqualung would have to be the destination. The first Tull album to achieve massive commercial success, Aqualung shows the band finally divorced from its beginnings as a blues band and firmly in the control of vocalist/flautist/acoustic guitarist/songwriter Ian Anderson. An expanded version of Wond'ring Aloud called Wond'ring Again was recorded around the same time and was included on the 1973 album Living In The Past.
Artist: Todd Rundgren
Title: Good Vibrations
Source: Stereo 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Wilson/Love
Label: Bearsville
Year: 1976
Todd Rundgren has stated that his musical career began in 1966, the year he formed Nazz. Ten years later he released the album Faithful. The first side of that album was made up entirely of near-perfect replicas of some of Rundgren's favorite songs from 1966 (and one from early 1967). One of these, Good Vibrations, was also released as a single. Although Rundgren's voice isn't quite up to the level of the mid-60s Beach Boys in the harmony department, the arrangement of the song is dead on, and is actually less jarring to listen to than Brian Wilson's own remake of the song from 2004.
Artist: Steve Miller Band
Title: Space Cowboy
Source: LP: Anthology (originally released on LP: Brave New World)
Writer(s): Miller/Sidran
Label: Capitol
Year: 1969
One of the most popular of Steve Miller Band songs in the group's early years, Space Cowboy was a highlight of the 1969 album Brave New World. Two of the band's founding members, guitarist Boz Scaggs and keyboardist Jim Peterman, had left the band, with Ben Sidran taking over keyboards for the band. The song is considered to be one of three autobiographical songs by Miller (the others being Gangster Of Love and The Joker) recorded over a period of years.
Artist: Santana
Title: Singing Winds, Crying Beasts
Source: European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Abraxas)
Writer(s): Mike Carabello
Label: Sony Music (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1970
Mike Carabello, one of the three Santana percussionists, only had one solo songwriting credit on the three LPs he played on. It was a good one, though. Singing Winds, Crying Beasts is the opening track of the second Santana LP, Abraxas. The tune flows so naturally into the next track that it is sometimes considered a long intro to Black Magic Woman, despite the fact that Singing Winds, Crying Beasts (heard here as a separate track) is nearly five minutes long.
Artist: Robin Trower
Title: About To Begin
Source: CD: Bridge Of Sighs
Writer(s): Robin Trower
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol
Year: 1974
Many of the artists featured on FM rock radio in the 1970s had already established themselves in the latter part of the previous decade, getting airplay on underground stations as well as the occasional top 40 hit. Others were newcomers that would go on to become stars in the 1980s. Then there are those few who seem to be exclusively associated with the 1970s. Among this group is Robin Trower, former guitarist of the art-rock oriented Procol Harum. Trower seldom got a chance to shine in the keyboard-dominated Harum, however, and left the group in 1972 to form his own band, Jude. Jude did not last long enough to record an album, but it did provide Trower with the core of his new trio, consisting of Trower himself on guitar, James Dewar on bass and vocals and Reg Isidore on drums. Trower's first solo album, Twice Removed From Yesterday, was fairly well-received by the rock press, but it actually was only setting the stage for what is now considered one of the greatest rock guitar albums ever recorded: 1974's Bridge Of Sighs. Even the lesser-known tracks like About To Begin got at least some airplay, and deservedly so.
Artist: Yes
Title: Heart Of The Sunrise
Source: CD: Fragile
Writer(s): Anderson/Squire/Bruford
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1971
Although it is the fourth most played song in the Yes catalogue, Heart Of The Sunrise, from the 1971 album Fragile, was never issued as a single. This is due mostly to the fact that the track runs over ten minutes in length, far exceeding even such lengthy tunes as Paradise By The Dashboard Light, American Pie or MacArthur Park. The song was written by Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Bill Bruford and Rick Wakeman, but due to contractual reasons, Wakeman's name had to be left off the credits.
Artist: Firesign Theatre
Title: Back From The Shadows Again
Source: LP: I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus
Writer(s): Proctor/Bergman/Austin/Ossman
Label: Columbia
Year: 1971
I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus is the fourth Firesign Theatre album, released in 1971. Like it's predecessor, Don't Touch That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers, Bozos is one continuous narrative covering both sides of an LP. It tells the story of a visit to a Future Fair that somewhat resembles Disney's Tomorrowland, with various interractive educational exhibits such as the Wall Of Science. The piece was actually made up of shorter bits that the Firesign Theatre had used previously on their weekly radio show, but reworked and re-recorded for the new album. One of these was Back From The Shadows Again, sung to the tune of Gene Autry's signature song Back In The Saddle Again.
Artist: King Crimson
Title: 21st Century Schizoid Man
Source: CD: In The Court Of The Crimson King
Writer: Fripp/McDonald/Lake/Giles/Sinfield
Label: Discipline Global Mobile (original US label: Atlantic)
Year: 1969
There are several bands with a legitimate claim to starting the prog-rock movement of the mid-70s. The one most musicians cite as the one that started it all, however, is King Crimson. Led by Robert Fripp, the band went through several personnel changes over the years. Many of the members went on to greater commercial success as members of other bands, including guitarist/keyboardist Ian McDonald (Foreigner), and lead vocalist/bassist Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) from the original lineup heard on In The Court Of The Crimson King. Additionally, poet Peter Sinfield, who wrote all King Crimson's early lyrics, would go on to perform a similar function for Emerson, Lake and Palmer, including their magnum opus Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends. Other original members included Michael Giles on drums and Fripp himself on guitar. 21st Century Schizoid Man, as the first song on the first album by King Crimson, can quite literally be cited as the song that got the whole thing started.
Artist: Uriah Heep
Title: Dreamer
Source: LP: Sweet Freedom
Writer(s): Thain/Box
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1973
Even though Uriah Heep was known for their high energy rock, there always seemed to be one song on each album that managed to rock out even harder than the rest of them. On the band's sixth LP, Sweet Freedom, that song was Dreamer, the album's opening track. Co-written by guitarist Mick Box and bassist Gary Thain (the only known collaboration between the two), Dreamer has an energy level that approaches frenetic, especially on the song's fadeout ending. Wild stuff!
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