https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/386255-dc-2139
Two sets this week: the first one takes us from 1968 to 1973, one year at a time, while the second is for the most part centered on 1968. Of course it all rocks.
Artist: Grand Funk Railroad
Title: Mark Says Alright
Source: Stereo 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Farner/Brewer/Schacher
Label: Capitol
Year: 1970
Grand Funk Railroad's Live Album, released in 1970, continued the group's pattern of getting universally negative reviews from the rock press while selling millions of copies to the band's fans. Unlike most live albums, the double LP contained no overdubs or remixes, reflecting the band's desire to present an accurate, if flawed, representation of how the band actually sounded in concert. Although most of the songs on the Live Album are also available as studio tracks on their first three albums, one track, the five-minute long instrumental piece called Mark Says Alright, was nearly exclusive to the Live Album. I say "nearly" because the track was also issued as the B side of the album's first single, Heartbreaker.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: It's Breaking Me Up
Source: CD: This Was
Writer(s): Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
Jethro Tull originally was part of the British blues scene, but even in the early days the band's principal songwriter Ian Anderson wanted to expand beyond the confines of that particular genre. Ironically It's Breaking Me Up, from Jethro Tull's first LP, is an Anderson composition that is rooted solidly in the British blues style.
Artist: Mighty Baby
Title: I've Been Down So Long
Source: British import CD: Mighty Baby
Writer(s): Powell/Whiteman/Stone/Evans/King
Label: Big Beat (original label: Head)
Year: 1969
After the departure of frontman Reggie King, the Action, which had been in existence since 1965, decided to change not only its name, but its entire sound as well. Originally a Merseybeat band doing Motown covers, the band had slowly been incorporating elements of California bands such as the Byrds and the Association. With the addition of Ian Whiteman, they began to delve into improvisational rock as well, and by the time they officially became Mighty Baby in 1969 they were being hailed as England's answer to the Grateful Dead. As can be heard on tracks like I've Been Down So Long, they certainly had the talent to pull it off, but even the Dead themselves were generally received with indifference by the British, and Mighty Baby fared no better there than the band that inspired them.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: Think About The Times
Source: CD: Watt
Writer(s): Alvin Lee
Label: Chrysalis (original label: Deram)
Year: 1970
The first Ten Years After I ever bought was Stonedhenge, which I picked up because a) I liked the cover, and b) it was the featured album of the month at the BX at Ramstein Air Base, costing a buck and a half instead of the usual $2.50. Not long after that my dad got transferred back to the States, and I somehow missed the release of the next TYA album, Cricklewood Green. A friend of mine had a copy, though, that we spent a lot of time listening to, so when I saw the next TYA album, Watt, on the racks I immediately picked it up. I wore that copy out, and only later learned that the album had gotten mostly negative reviews from the rock press. I think that's when I started to suspect that most rock critics were self-righteous individuals with no talent of their own, because I thought Watt was a good album then and I still think it's a good album. Take a listen to Think About The Times and tell me I'm wrong.
Artist: Uriah Heep
Title: Time To Live (alternate version)
Source: British import CD: Salisbury
Writer(s): Box/Byron/Hensley
Label: Sanctuary
Year: Recorded 1971, released 2003
For their second LP, Salisbury, Uriah Heep attempted to explore new ground while maintaining their "heavy" image established on their first effort. For the most part they succeeded. One of the heavier tunes on the album, Time To Live, was actually put together in the recording studio itself, and tells the story of a man being released from prison after serving a 20-year sentence. Obviously, the song was not written from personal experience, since the band members were all in their early 20s at the time. The alternate version of Time To Live heard here was mixed and edited for a possible single release, but never issued. Oddly enough, it is actually about 15 seconds longer than the LP version.
Artist: Todd Rundgren
Title: Couldn't I Just Tell You
Source: LP: Something/Anything?
Writer(s): Todd Rundgren
Label: Bearsville
Year: 1972
Three of the four sides of Todd Rundgren's 1972 album Something/Anything were 100% solo efforts done in Rundgren's own home studio. Among the other things he accomplished with this album was pretty much single-handedly inventing the power pop genre with the song Couldn't I Just Tell You.
Artist: Queen
Title: Doing All Right
Source: LP: Queen
Writer(s): May/Staffell
Label: Elektra
Year: 1973
Before there was a band called Queen, there was Smile. Formed by guitarist Brian May and bassist Tim Staffell, the group soon recruited drummer Roger Taylor and, eventually, keyboardist/vocalist Farrokh Basada, who suggested the band change its name to Queen. Staffell left the band before the group's first album (replaced by John Deacon), but not before co-writing a song called Doing All Right, which Staffell originally sang lead vocals on. When Queen finally got a record contract in 1973, they included Doing All Right on the debut LP, with Basada, who by then had taken the stage name Freddie Mercury, doing the vocals in a style deliberately similar to that of Staffell.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Careful With That Axe, Eugene
Source: CD: Relics (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Waters/Wright/Mason/Gilmour
Label: Capitol (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1968
Despite being originally released only as a B side of a non-charting single (and not being released in the US at all) Be Careful With That Axe, Eugene is one of the most popular Pink Floyd tracks from the 1960s. This is due in part to the inclusion of a live version of the song on the 1969 LP Ummagumma. The original studio version was also included on the 1971 compilation album Relics. It is one of the first songs credited to all four band members following the departure of founder Syd Barrett.
Artist: Pentangle
Title: Pentangling
Source: LP: Superecord Contemporary (originally released on LP: The Pentangle)
Writer(s): Cox/Jansch/McShea/Renbourne/Thompson
Label: Warner Brothers (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
Once in a while an album comes along that is so consistently good that it's impossible to single out one specific track for airplay. Such is the case with the debut Pentangle album from 1968. The group, consisting of guitarists John Renbourne and Bert Jansch, vocalist Jacqui McShea, bassist Terry Cox, and drummer Danny Thompson, had more talent than nearly any band in history from any genre, yet never succumbed to the clash of egos that characterize most supergroups. Enjoy all seven minutes of Pentangling.
Artist: Joni Mitchell
Title: Nathan La Franeer
Source: LP: The 1969 Warner/Reprise Songbook (originally released on LP: Song To A Seagull)
Writer(s): Joni Mitchell
Label: Warner Brothers (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
Producer David Crosby came up with the idea of using the architecture of a grand piano to help shape Joni Mitchell's voice on her debut LP, Song To A Seagull, using extra microphones to capture the sound of her voice reverberating off the piano strings. Unfortunately, this idea resulted in excessive tape hiss, which was equalized out during the mastering process, leaving the entire album with a somewhat muddy sound that Mitchell later described as sounding like it was recorded under a Jello bowl. Nonetheless, Warner/Reprise chose Nathan La Franeer from that album for inclusion on The 1969 Warner/Reprise Songbook, the first of a series of budget-priced albums known as "Loss Leaders" that were available directly from the record company itself and advertised on all their record sleeves.
Artist: Crosby, Stills and Nash
Title: Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
Source: LP: Crosby, Stills and Nash
Writer: Stephen Stills
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1969
After the demise of Buffalo Springfield, Stephen Stills headed for New York, where he worked with Al Kooper on the Super Session album and recorded several demo tapes of his own, including a new song called Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (reportedly written for his then-girlfriend Judy Collins). After his stint in New York he returned to California, where he started hanging out in the Laurel Canyon home of David Crosby, who had been fired from the Byrds in 1967. Crosby's house at that time was generally filled with a variety of people coming and going, and Crosby and Stills soon found themselves doing improvised harmonies on each other's material in front of a friendly, if somewhat stoned, audience. It was not long before they invited Graham Nash, whom they heard had been having problems of his own with his bandmates in the Hollies, to come join them in Laurel Canyon. The three soon began recording together, and in 1969 released the album Crosby, Stills and Nash. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes was chosen as the opening track for the new album and was later released (in severely edited form) as a single.
Artist: Edgar Winter's White Trash
Title: Keep Playin' That Rock 'N' Roll
Source: 45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s): Edgar Winter
Label: Epic
Year: 1972
Edgar Winter has often been accused of riding his brother Johnny's coattails to fame. Keep Playin' That Rock 'N' Roll, released by Edgar Winter's White Trash in 1972, is sort of an admission that that is exactly what happened.
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