https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/383557-dc-2136
Slightly more than five years after its inception, Rockin' in the Days of Confusion presents its first all-vinyl show this week. All but one of the songs are album tracks, the exception being a 1970 Elton John B side. A couple of them come from compilation albums, but the rest are all from the original LPs. Enjoy!
Artist: Flock
Title: Tired Of Waiting For You
Source: German import LP: Underground '70 (originally released on LP: The Flock)
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: CBS (original US label: Columbia)
Year: 1969
The Flock was one of those bands that made an impression on those who heard them perform but somehow were never able to turn that into massive record sales. Still, they left a pair of excellent LPs for posterity. The most notable track from the first album was their cover of the 1965 Kinks hit Tired Of Waiting For You, featuring solos at the beginning and end of the song from violinist Jerry Goodwin, who would go on to help John McLaughlin found the Mahavishnu Orchestra a couple years later.
Artist: Spirit
Title: Elijah
Source: LP: Spirit
Writer: John Locke
Label: Epic
Year: 1968
Since the mid-1960s many bands have had one long piece that they play in concert that is specifically designed to allow individual band members to strut their stuff. In a few cases, such as Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida or Lynnard Skynnard's Freebird, it becomes their best-known song. In most cases, though, a studio version of the piece gets put on an early album and never gets heard on the radio. Such is the case with Spirit's show-stopper Elijah, which was reportedly never played the same way twice. Elijah, written by keyboardist John Locke, starts with a hard-rockin' main theme that is followed by a jazzier second theme that showcases one of the lead instruments (guitar, keyboards). The piece then comes to a dead stop while one of the members has a solo section of their own devising. This is followed by the main theme, repeating several times until every member has had their own solo section. The piece ends with a return to the main theme followed by a classic power rock ending.
Artist: Steppenwolf
Title: Fag
Source: LP: Monster
Writer(s): Byron/St. Nicholas/Edmonton
Label: Dunhill
Year: 1969
Fag, from the album Monster is, to my knowledge, the only blues instrumental Steppenwolf ever recorded. Thanks to Associate Producer Greg Cotterill for the donation of this LP to the show from his personal collection.
Artist: Elton John
Title: Take Me To The Pilot
Source: Mono 45 RPM single
Writer(s): John/Taupin
Label: Uni
Year: 1970
Elton John's 1970 self-titled LP was actually his second album, but was the first to be released in the US on the Uni label. John had already released three US singles on other labels before the LP came out, including one track, Border Song, that ended up being included on the album. The first single to actually be taken from the album itself was Take Me To The Pilot, which was released in October of 1970. US disc jockeys, however, found the lyrics to be confusing (a sentiment later echoed by Elton John himself) and began playing the flip side of the record instead. That B side was Your Song, and it became John's first major hit after being released internationally in January of 1971.
Artist: T. Rex
Title: Bang A Gong (Get It On)
Source: LP: Heavy Metal (originally released on LP: Electric Warrior)
Writer(s): Marc Bolan
Label: Warner Special Products (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1971
My memories of my senior year of high school are somewhat spotty. Some things I remember quite vividly, yet have forgotten the context that those memories reside in. For instance, I clearly remember being at my friend Dave's cheap apartment in early 1971 in Alamogordo, NM, listening to the Tyrannosaurus Rex album Unicorn on an even cheaper stereo. What I don't remember is how I got to Dave's cheap apartment that particular night or whether I crashed there or went back to my parent's house. For that matter, I don't even remember if anyone else was there or not that night, not even Dave's kind-of girlfriend, who came and went as she pleased anyway. I do remember, however, discussing with Dave how strange this psychedelic folk music with fantasy-based lyrics sounded compared to rock bands like the Allman Brothers, Ten Years After and Santana, and in particular how weird the singer's voice sounded to us. To us, it was truly underground stuff along the lines of the Incredible String Band, with no commercial potential. Imagine my surprise when, a few months later, I heard that same weird voice on top 40 radio singing Bang A Gong (Get It On). It turns out that Marc Bolan had originally been a lead guitarist with a psychedelic band called John's Children, but had hooked up with drummer Steve Peregrine Took to form Tyrannosaurus Rex in 1967, eschewing electric instruments entirely for three albums' worth of material, the third of which was the aforementioned Unicorn. The two of them had a falling out, however, with Took moving on to other things while a newly re-electrified Bolan added new members and shortened the name of the group to T. Rex. From 1970 to 1973 T. Rex scored 11 consecutive top 10 singles on the British charts, four of them (including Get It On) going to the #1 spot. The actual title of the song, incidentally is Get It On, but, due to a band called Chase having a US hit with a song called Get It On in 1971, it was decided to retitle the tune Bang A Gong (Get It On) for its US release.
Artist: Black Sabbath
Title: Solitude
Source: LP: Master Of Reality
Writer(s): Iommi/Osborne/Butler/Ward
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1971
I have to admit I'm a sucker for the slow, moody songs that appear as a change of pace on Black Sabbath's early albums. One of my favorites is Solitude, from the band's third LP, Master Of Reality. The song sets a mood that is in sharp contrast with the early heavy metal sound of the rest of the album. Guitarist Tony Iommi also plays piano and flute on the track.
Artist: James Gang
Title: Yadig?
Source: LP: Thirds
Writer(s): Walsh/Peters/Fox
Label: ABC
Year: 1971
Following the pattern established on their previous LP, the James Gang album Thirds leads off with a stong Joe Walsh rocker, followed up by a group-penned instrumental piece. For Thirds that piece is Yadig?, a jazzy little tune that features some nice vibraphone work from bassist Dale Peters.
Artist: Earth Disciples
Title: Earth Island Ferry
Source: LP: Getaway Train
Writer(s): Rudy Reid
Label: Solid State
Year: 1970
There is no question that 1970 was a year of experimentation in music. The surface implication of such a statement might lead you to think of bands like Tangerine Dream, who were trying out all kinds of new electronic effects, or Renaissance, who were taking a classical approach to rock. But there were other types of experiments going on as well. New radio formats were developing. Artists were looking at new hybrid genres to explore, such as jazz-rock and soul-funk. One band that went that route was Earth Disciples from the Chicago area. Co-led by guitarist Jimmy Holloway (who also did some keyboard work), Earth Disciples were fond of jazz experimentation, which can be heard on instrumental tracks like Life Cycle. As to what happened to the band, your guess is as good as mine.
Artist: Deep Purple
Title: Bird Has Flown
Source: LP: Deep Purple
Writer(s): Evans/Blackmore/Lord
Label: Tetragrammaton
Year: 1969
Much of the music on the first two Deep Purple albums (including the singles Hush and Kentucky Woman) was made up of extensively rearranged cover songs, leading some critics to consider the band England's answer to Vanilla Fudge. Although the band was doing well enough in the US, they were virtually ignored at home, and in early 1969 set out to do something about the latter. The most important change was to focus on original material. Their next single was a pair of songs composed by the band, with the more experimental of the two, a song called The Bird Has Flown, appearing as the B side of the US release of the record (a song from their second LP was chosen for the British B side). Feeling that the song was deserving of greater exposure, the band recorded a new version (retitled Bird Has Flown) for their self-titled third LP. Unfortunately, the band's US label, Tetragrammaton, was having serious financial problems, resulting in a delayed release of the album with virtually no promotion from the label itself. Tetragrammaton went bankrupt not long after the LP hit the stands, making it by far the most obscure Deep Purple album ever released.
Artist: Blues Image
Title: Reality Does Not Inspire
Source: LP: Blues Image
Writer(s): Blues Image
Label: Atco
Year: 1969
Formed in 1967, Blues Image cited Greenwich Village's Blues Project as their primary inspiration, and is generally acknowledged to be Florida's first jam band. They were also one of the few bands to open their own club, the legendary Thee Image, and played host to many big name acts during the club's short run. Among the Blues Images fans was Jimi Hendrix, who once told them they did great arrangements of other people's material, but their own stuff was relatively weak. The band responded by temporarily putting their original material on the shelf, pulling it out later and giving it the same treatment they would any other cover song. This approach seemed to work well, as Reality Does Not Inspire, the nine minute "showcase" track for their debut LP demonstrates.
Artist: Sugarloaf
Title: Hot Water
Source: LP: Spaceship Earth
Writer(s): Corbetta/Yeazel
Label: Liberty
Year: 1970
Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Robert Yeazel joined Sugarloaf right after their first album was released, strengthening an already solid lineup. He contributed to many of the tracks on the band's second LP, Spaceship Earth, among them Hot Water, which he co-wrote with keyboardist (and band leader) Jerry Corbetta.
No comments:
Post a Comment