https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/433594-dc-2233
Time for another progression through the years, from 1968 to 1974, followed by a free-form set.
Artist: Matthews' Southern Comfort
Title: Woodstock
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Joni Mitchell
Label: Decca
Year: 1971
Some people prefer the original Joni Mitchell version of Woodstock, while others favor Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's harder rocking version. My own favorite is the one released by Matthews' Southern Comfort in March of 1970. The record almost didn't get released as a single at all. The band's British label, MCA, only agreed to do so when it became apparent that the CSN&Y version was going nowhere on the British charts. The Matthews's Southern Comfort version of Woodstock went to the top of the British charts, despite a lack of promotional support from the label. In November the song was released in the US, eventually making it to the #23 spot in early 1971. By that time, however, the band itself had split up, mainly due to bandleader Ian Matthews' inability to cope with the trappings of having a #1 hit single. Matthews had been a founding member of Fairport Convention, but had left the group in 1969 to concentrate on his songwriting and establishing himself as a solo artist. His first solo album was named Matthews' Southern Comfort, a name he used for the band he formed to record two more albums, Second Spring and Later That Same Year. Woodstock was originally slated to appear on Later That Same Year, but was instead issued separately as a single, a common practice in the UK.
Artist: Al Kooper/Mike Bloomfield/Barry Goldberg/Harvey Brooks/Eddie Hoh
Title: Albert's Shuffle
Source: CD: Super Session
Writer(s): Bloomfield/Kooper
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1968
There is no doubt that one of the most important and influential albums of the late 1960s was the Super Session album. Released in 1968, the album was conceived in part because keyboardist/producer Al Kooper felt that Michael Bloomfield had never been recorded in the right context to truly showcase his prowess as a guitarist. Taking advantage of his position as staff producer for Columbia Records, Kooper enlisted keyboardist Barry Goldberg and bassist Harvey Brooks (both of which had been Bloomfield's bandmates in the Electric Flag), as well as ace studio drummer Eddie Hoh for a series of taped jam sessions. Although Bloomfield himself went AWOL midway through the sessions, the quintet managed to get several outstanding tracks recorded, including Albert's Shuffle, which opens the LP.
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: Stephen Stills & Jimi Hendrix
Title: No-Name Jam
Source: Promo CD: Selections from Carry On
Writer(s): Stills/Hendrix
Label: Atlantic/Rhino
Year: 1970
For his first solo LP, Stephen Stills brought in several big name guest musicians, including Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Booker T. Jones and Jimi Hendrix. Although Hendrix played on only one track, Old Times Good Times, on the album itself, a warm up jam featuring both Hendrix and Stills on guitar remained in the vaults for several years, finally seeing the light of day on the 2013 Stephen Stills box set Carry On.
Artist: Pearls Before Swine
Title: She's Gone
Source: CD: Constructive Melancholy-30 Years Of Pearls Before Swine (originally released on LP: Beautiful Lies You Could Live In)
Writer(s): Tom Rapp
Label: Birdman (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1971
After recording two albums with his band Pearls Before Swine for the New York based avant-garde label ESP Disk (and not receiving any money for them), Tom Rapp signed a contract with Reprise Records, releasing two LPs under the name Pearls Before Swine. The next two LPs were credited to Tom Rapp/Pearls Before Swine, with a final LP released in 1972 as a Tom Rapp solo album. In reality, all of the Reprise albums, with one exception, featured Rapp accompanied by various studio musicians. In 1971, however, Rapp had decided that Pearls Before Swine would embark on its first-ever tour, which meant recruiting Mike Krawitz (piano), Gordon Hayes (bass) and Jon Tooker (guitar) to be the band called Pearls Before Swine. It was this group (with the aid of a handful of studio musicians) that recorded Beautiful Lies You Could Live In, releasing the album in November of 1971. Of all of the albums credited to Pearls Before Swine, Beautiful Lies You Could Live In is the most folk-rock oriented, with guitars and drums featured prominently in the mix on songs like She's Gone.
Artist: Blue Öyster Cult
Title: I'm On The Lamb, But I Ain't No Sheep
Source: LP: Blue Öyster Cult
Writer(s): Bloom/Bouchard/Pearlman
Label: Columbia
Year: 1972
I'm On The Lamb, But I Ain't No Sheep was first recorded in 1970, shortly after the band that would become Blue Öyster Cult had changed its name from Soft White Underbelly to Oaxaca. The song, about a guy being chased by the Mounties, was re-recorded later that same year for the band's first album for Elektra, when the band was calling itself the Stalk-Forrest Group, but that album remained unreleased until 2001. The song was recorded again and finally released on Blue Öyster Cult's self-titled debut LP for Columbia in 1972. The following year a faster and heavier version of the song titled The Red And The Black was recorded for their followup LP, Tyranny And Mutation.
Artist: Steely Dan
Title: Show Biz Kids
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Becker/Fagen
Label: ABC
Year: 1973
Steely Dan's second LP, 1973's Countdown To Ecstasy, did not sell as well as their 1972 debut LP. The reason usually cited for this dropoff in sales is the lack of a hit single, although at least two singles were released from the album. The second of these was Show Biz Kids, a song that sums up the entire Los Angeles lifestyle, a theme that the group would continue to explore for the rest of the decade.
Artist: Robin Trower
Title: Bridge Of Sighs/In This Place
Source: LP: Bridge Of Sighs
Writer(s): Robin Trower
Label: Chrysalis
Year: 1974
One of the most celebrated guitar albums of all time, Bridge Of Sighs was Robin Trower's second solo LP following his departure from Procol Harum. Released in 1974, the LP spent 31 weeks on the Billboard album charts, peaking at #7. Bridge of Sighs has served as a template for later guitar-oriented albums, especially those of Warren Haines and Gov't Mule.
Artist: James Gang
Title: Funk #49/Ashtonpark
Source: CD: James Gang Rides Again
Writer(s): Fox/Peters/Walsh
Label: MCA (original label: ABC)
Year: 1970
Following the release of their first LP, Yer' Album, the James Gang toured extensively, giving them little time to work up material for their followup album. Nonetheless, they managed to turn out a classic with the 1970 release James Gang Rides Again. The album starts with the song that all three band members agree was already worked out by the time they hit the studio, Funk #49. The song (which is probably the band's best known tune) is followed immediately by Ashtonpark, a short instrumental that picks up where Funk #49 fades out. The track is essentially Joe Walsh, Dale Peters and Jim Fox jamming over an echo effect created by cycling the playback of Walsh's guitar back through the record head of the studio tape recorder.
Artist: Temptations
Title: Papa Was A Rolling Stone
Source: Mono 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer: Whitfield/Strong
Label: Motown Yesteryear (original label: Gordy)
Year: 1972
One of the longest songs ever to get played on top 40 radio, Papa Was A Rolling Stone was in many ways a climactic recording. It was the last big Temptations hit, and one of the last songs produced by the team of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, the so-called "psychedelic soul" producers, before Whitfield left Motown to form his own production company. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it was the last major hit to feature the Funk Brothers, the (mostly uncredited) instrumentalists who had played on virtually every Motown record in the 60s but had been largely supplanted by studio musicians working out of Los Angeles, where the label had relocated its corporate headquarters to, in the early 70s. And on Papa Was A Rolling Stone the Funk Brothers finally got to shine as soloists, with an intro on the LP version that lasted more than four minutes and a long extended instrumental section in the middle of the piece as well. Papa Was A Rolling Stone has been called the last great Motown record. I tend to agree with that assessment.
Artist: Steppenwolf
Title: Draft Resister
Source: LP: Monster
Writer(s): Kay/McJohn/Byrom
Label: Dunhill
Year: 1969
By far the most political of Steppenwolf's albums was their 1969 effort Monster. Although there is a chance that a truly unperceptive person might miss the point of the title track that opens the LP, the next song, Draft Resister, makes a point that even a dedicated Rush Limbaugh fan would notice.
Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Title: Commotion
Source: LP: Green River
Writer(s): John Fogerty
Label: Fantasy
Year: 1969
One of the first songs I ever played bass on was Commotion, which I had bought a copy of as the B side of the Creedence Clearwater Revival single Green River. At the time I was using an acoustic guitar with a pickup mounted in the big hole, and was only playing on the two lowest-pitched strings. It wasn't until years later that I learned that Noel Redding had done virtually the same thing on the original recording of Red House by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Gee, I almost feel vindicated.
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