https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/446969-dc-2245
This week's edition of Rockin' in the Days of Confusion starts with a couple of songs that have been borrowed from our companion show, Stuck in the Psychedelic Era. From there it's a whole bunch of tunes that have never been played on either show, along with a pair of pairs (read on and you'll know what that means) that have each been played once before.
Artist: Crosby, Stills & Nash
Title: 49 Bye-Byes
Source: CD: Crosby, Stills & Nash
Writer(s): Stephen Stills
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1969
Like most of his 1969 songs, 49 Bye-Byes was written about Stephen Stills's then-girlfriend Judy Collins, proving that what they say about dating a songwriter is true.
Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Simple Sister
Source: LP: Broken Barricades
Writer: Brooker/Reid
Label: A&M
Year: 1971
By 1971 serious creative differences had developed between keyboardist/vocalist Gary Brooker and lead guitarist Robin Trower. At issue was the direction the band was moving in. While Brooker wanted to continue in the progressive/classical direction the band had become known for, Trower wanted a harder-edged sound. Trower's final album as a member of Procol Harum shows the two directions often at odds with each other. One track, though, Simple Sister, managed to merge elements of both Brooker's and Trower's styles, and received a significant amount of airplay on album-oriented FM radio throughout the 1970s.
Artist: Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
Title: The Only Way (Hymn)/Infinite Space (Conclusion)
Source: LP: Tarkus
Writer(s): Emerson/Lake/Palmer
Label: Cotillion
Year: 1971
Emerson, Lake and Palmer's second studio album, Tarkus, was basically two "half-albums". The first side of the album was the title track, a massive seven-part piece that is considered one of the greatest prog-rock suites ever recorded. The second side, on the other hand, contains several unrelated pieces such as The Only Way (Hymn) and Infinite Space (Conclusion). The two run together as kind of a mini-suite, with Greg Lake's vocals and Keith Emerson's organ work combining to create a church-like atmosphere on The Only Way (Hymn), while Infinite Space (Conclusion) is much more electronic in nature, with Emerson's synthesizers and Carl Palmer's drums taking center stage on an instrumental piece written in my favorite time signature, 7/4.
Artist: Rod Stewart
Title: Henry/Maggie May
Source: CD: Class Reunion '71 (originally released on LP: Every Picture Tells A Story)
Writer(s): Stewart/Quittenton
Label: Rebound (original label: Mercury)
Year: 1971
Although he was already well-established among rock afficianados as the vocalist of the original Jeff Beck Group and later, Faces, Rod Stewart did not become known to the general public until 1971, when his song Maggie May (based on a true story) became a worldwide number one hit after being released as the B side of Reason To Believe. The song itself was taken from the album Every Picture Tells A Story, where it is preceded by the 30-second long Henry, and instrumental written and played by guitarist Martin Quittenton, Maggie May's co-writer.
Artist: Lynyrd Skynyrd
Title: Poison Whiskey
Source: LP: (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd)
Writer(s): King/Van Zant
Label: MCA
Year: 1973
Someplace in Florida around 1968 or so, a band called Lynyrd Skynyrd was the opening act for a Strawberry Alarm Clock concert. The SAC's lead guitarist Ed King, was so impressed with them that he told them to call him if they ever needed a guitarist. Four years later producer Al Kooper caught Lynyrd Skynyrd's act in Atlanta and signed them to his fledgling Sounds Of The South label, which had a distribution deal with major label MCA. Just as sessions for the band's first LP, (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd), got underway, bassist Leon Wilkeson left the band, and King invited to join the group as Wilkeson's replacement. By the time the album was finished King had become the band's third lead guitarist, joining Gary Rossington and Allen Collins in what would come to be known as the "Three Guitar Army" when Wilkeson rejoined the group. In addition to playing bass and some guitar on the album, King co-wrote the song Poison Whiskey with vocalist Ronnie Van Zant.
Artist: Brownsville Station
Title: Love, Love, Love
Source: LP: Yeah!
Writer(s): Terry Knight
Label: Big Tree
Year: 1973
Unlike most early-1970s bands, Michigan's Brownsville Station did not write a whole lot of their own material, preferring to do their own arrangements of other people's songs. One example of this is Love, Love, Love, which was written by fellow Michigan native Terry Knight. The song had originally been recorded as Love, Love, Love, Love, Love for the 1967 album Reflections by Terry Knight And The Pack, which featured future Grand Funk Railroad guitarist Mark Farner (on bass) and drummer Don Brewer.
Artist: Joe Walsh
Title: Midnight Moodies/Happy Ways
Source: LP: The Smoker Your Drink, The Player You Get
Writer(s): Grace/Passarelli/Zoloth
Label: ABC/Dunhill
Year: 1973
After leaving the James Gang in late 1971, guitarist/vocalist spent the next several months hibernating in Colorado, eventually forming a new band called Barnstorm. The group's second LP, The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get, was bannered as a Walsh solo album, which led to the band's demise. Despite this, four of the album's nine tracks were written by band members other than Walsh, including the instrumental Midnight Moodies from the band's new keyboardist, Rocke Grace, and Happy Ways, a whimsical tune co-written by Barnstorm bassist Kenny Passarelli and Buddy Zoloth, the former road manager of Blues Image.
Artist: Allman Brother Band
Title: You Don't Love Me
Source: CD: Eat A Peach (Deluxe Edition)
Writer(s): Willie Cobbs
Label: Mercury
Year: Recorded 1971, released 2006
Starting in the mid 1990s, record companies have been reissue classic albums on compact disc with several bonus tracks added to fill out the CD's greater capacity. In 2006 Mercury took it a step further, managing to fit the Allman Brothers Band's 2-LP Eat A Peach onto one disc and then including an entire live concert on a second disc. And it wasn't just any live recording, either; it was the band's historic appearance on the final day of Bill Graham's Fillmore East auditorium on June 27, 1971. The show closer was a seventeen and a half rendition of Willie Cobbs's You Don't Love Me.
Artist: Johnny Winter
Title: Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Source: European import CD: Johnny Winter
Writer(s): Sonny Boy Williamson
Label: Repertoire (original US label: Columbia)
Year: 1969
In December of 1968 Johnny Winter was invited by fellow guitarist Mike Bloomfied to join himself and keyboardist Al Kooper onstage at the Fillmore East. His appearance so impressed representatives of Columbia Records that they signed him in less than a week to what was then the largest advance in the history of recorded music ($600,000). His first LP for Columbia included a mix of original tunes and cover versions of blues classics such as Sonny Boy Williamson's Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, which was miscredited on the label to Don Level and Bob Love, who had recorded a completely different song with the same name in 1961.
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