https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/418347-dc-2218
Quite a few recent episodes of Rockin' in the Days of Confusion have started off somewhat structured, but by the end of the hour have gone completely free-form. This one is just the opposite, with a freeform set leading into a pair of Eurock tunes from the mid-1970s and finishing up with a progression that takes us from 1967 to 1971.
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Title: Immigrant Song
Source: CD: Led Zeppelin III
Writer(s): Page/Plant
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1970
Although the third Led Zeppelin album is known mostly for its surprising turn toward a more acoustic sound than its predecessors, the first single from that album actually rocked out as hard, if not harder, than any previous Zeppelin track. In fact, it could be argued that Immigrant Song rocks out harder than anything on top 40 radio before or since. Starting with a tape echo deliberately feeding on itself the song breaks into a basic riff built on two notes an octave apart, with Robert Plant's wailing vocals sounding almost like a siren call. Guitarist Jimmy Page soon breaks into a series of power chords that continue to build in intensity for the next two minutes, until the song abruptly stops cold. The lyrics of Immigrant Song were inspired by the band's trip to Iceland in 1970.
Artist: Queen
Title: Tie Your Mother Down
Source: LP: A Day At The Races
Writer(s): Brian May
Label: Elektra
Year: 1976
Following the commercial success of their fourth studio album, A Night At The Opera, with its hit single Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen got to work on a followup LP. Following the pattern set by the Marx Brothers, they decided to call the new album A Day At The Races. The LP, released in 1976, starts with a Brian May rocker calledTie Your Mother Down that became the album's second single. The song actually dates back to May's college days, when he was working on his Astronomy PhD. Vocalist Freddie Mercury said of the song: "Well this one in fact is a track written by Brian actually, I dunno why. Maybe he was in one of his vicious moods. I think he’s trying to out do me after Death On Two Legs actually." Death On Two Legs, of course, was Mercury's scathing indictment of Queen's former manager that had appeared on A Night At The Opera. Tie Your Mother Down was part of Queen's stage repertoire for several years, and got considerable airplay on FM rock radio in the US in the late 1970s. On the album the track is preceded by a slowly fading-in guitar intro that uses something called a Shepard tone. The same solo guitar piece appears at the end of the album as well, only this time fading out.
Artist: Edgar Winter Group
Title: Frankenstein (edited version)
Source: European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: They Only Come Out At Night. Edited version released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Edgar Winter
Label: Sony Music (original label: Epic)
Year: 1973
A real monster hit (sorry, couldn't resist).
Artist: Wishbone Ash
Title: Errors Of My Way
Source: CD: Wishbone Ash
Writer(s): Turner/Turner/Powell/Upton
Label: MCA (original label: Decca)
Year: 1970
Wishbone Ash was one of the first bands to feature dual lead guitars. This came about almost by accident, as the group had been looking for a lead guitarist but couldn't choose between the two finalists, Andy Powell and Ted Turner. They decided to go with both, and, after Powell sat in with Deep Purple's Ritchie Blackmore during a soundcheck, the group was signed to MCA Records. Their debut LP (which was issued on MCA's Decca label in 1970) was an immediate success, and Wishbone Ash became one of the most popular hard rock bands of the early 1970s. Unlike many bands with two lead guitarists, Wishbone Ash emphasized harmony leads over individual solos, as can be heard on tracks like Errors Of My Way.
Artist: Grand Funk Railroad
Title: Flight Of The Phoenix
Source: Stereo 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Mark Farner
Label: Capitol
Year: 1972
After five successful albums produced by Terry Knight, the members of Grand Funk Railroad decided to go it alone for their 1972 LP Phoenix. The album was the first to include Craig Frost, who would eventually become a full member of the band, on keyboards, as can be heard on the LP's opening track, the instrumental Flight Of The Phoenix. Famed fiddler Doug Kershaw can also be heard on the track.
Artist: Carpe Diem
Title: Réincarnation
Source: French import LP: En Regardant Passer Le Temps (also released in Canada as Way Out-As Time Goes By)
Writer(s): Yeu/Truchy
Label: Crypto (original label: Arcane)
Year: 1976
The mid-1970s saw the rise of several bands that combined elements of rock, jazz and classical music with the latest electronic technology to create something entirely new. In Germany it came to be called Kraut-rock, while in other countries it went by names like art-rock, prog-rock, space-rock or even Eurock. The French Riviera was home to Carpe Diem (originally called Deis Corpus), who released two LPs. The first, En Regardant Passer Le Temps, was also released in Canada under the title Way Out-As Time Goes By. The longest track on the album is Réincarnation, which runs nearly thirteen minutes. Although the album went largely unnoticed when originally released in 1976, it has since come to be regarded as one of the lost classics of progressive rock.
Artist: Triumvirat
Title: Dimplicity
Source: 45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s): Fritz/Bathelt
Label: Harvest
Year: 1974
Triumvirat was formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1969 by keyboardist Hans-Jürgen Fritz (aka Jürgen Fritz), bassist/vocalist Werner Frangenberg, and drummer-percussionist-lyricist Hans Bathelt. Heavily influenced by Keith Emerson's bands the Nice and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, the group's membership was in constant flux, with Fritz and Bathelt being joined by Helmut Köllen on vocals and Hans-Georg Pape on bass for their second LP, Illusions On A Dougle Dimple. The album itself is divided into two suites, each taking up one side of the original LP, but the Harvest label found a way to edit a portion of the first side down to less than three and a half minutes for release as a single called Dimplicity (the Dimplicity portion of the suite called Illusions On A Double Dimple runs in excess of five and a half minutes in length).
Artist: Cream
Title: We're Going Wrong
Source: LP: Disraeli Gears
Writer: Jack Bruce
Label: RSO (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
On Fresh Cream the slowest-paced tracks were bluesy numbers like Sleepy Time Time. For the group's second LP, bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce came up with We're Going Wrong, a song with a haunting melody supplemented by some of Eric Clapton's best guitar fills. Ginger Baker put away his drumsticks in favor of mallets, giving the song an otherworldly feel.
Artist: Jeff Beck
Title: I've Been Drinking
Source: CD: Truth (bonus track originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Beck/Stewart
Label: Epic/Legacy (original UK label: Columbia)
Year: 1968
In early 1968, a few months ahead of the release of Jeff Beck's debut solo LP, Truth, the British Columbia label issued Beck's cover version of the popular French instrumental by Paul Mauriot and his orchestra. As was often the case, producer Mickey Most chose the song for Beck to record, allowing Beck himself to come up with a B side for the single. That B side was I've Been Drinking, one of the earliest collaborations between Beck and vocalist Rod Stewart. The track features the same personnel as the Truth album, including Stewart on vocals, Ron Wood on bass, Mickey Waller on drums and guests Madeline Bell on background vocals and Nicky Hopkins on piano.
Artist: Johnny Winter
Title: Be Careful With A Fool
Source: British import CD: Johnny Winter
Writer(s): King/Josea
Label: Repertoire (original US label: Columbia)
Year: 1969
Johnny Winter's first album for Columbia (his second overall) is nothing less than a blues masterpiece. Accompanied by bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Uncle John Turner, Winter pours his soul into classics like B.B. King's Be Careful With A Fool, maybe even improving on the original (if such a thing is possible).
Artist: Fleetwood Mac
Title: Hi Ho Silver (Honey Hush)
Source: LP: Kiln House
Writer(s): Joe Turner
Label: Reprise
Year: 1970
After the departure of founder Peter Green in 1969, the remaining members of Fleetwood Mac and their families moved into a converted oast house (a building designed for kilning hops as part of the brewing process) for the next six months to work on the next album, appropriately titled Kiln House. With Green gone guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Jeremy Spencer took a more active role in the making of Kiln House, reflected in the group's choice to record songs like Big Joe Turner's Honey Hush. For reasons unknown, however, the song appeared on the album under the title Hi Ho Silver and was erroneously credited to Fats Waller, who died ten years before the song was written. Spencer would leave Fleetwood Mac the following year in the middle of a US tour to join the Children Of God and eventually embark upon a less than stellar solo career.
Artist: Cactus
Title: Long Tall Sally
Source: British import LP: The New Age Of Atlantic (originally released on LP: One Way...Or Another)
Writer(s): Penniman/Johnson/Blackwell
Label: Atlantic (original label: Atco)
Year: 1971
The second Cactus album, One Way...Or Another, followed the same pattern as the first one: a bunch of original tunes supplemented by a pair of old rock 'n' roll tunes redone in a style reminiscent of some of Vanilla Fudge's harder rocking tracks. This makes sense, since half of Cactus (bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice) were members of Vanilla Fudge before forming Cactus in the first place. In this instance the first of the two covers was a slowed-down and louded-up version of Little Richard's Long Tall Sally. Heavy stuff.
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