Sunday, April 16, 2023

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2316 (starts 4/17/23)

https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/469862-dc-2316


    OK, I admit it. I lost control after the first ten minutes or so and from then on let the show itself take over. And it went to some places I never would have thought of, like the hit single by Delaney and Bonnie that didn't appear on an album until after they had split up. Or that Queen song that was not written by either Freddie Mercury OR Brian May. What's with that?? And I'm not even going to ask what led to the inclusion of Peter Frampton's signature song (from his signature album, yet). Instead I'll just let you listen to this week's edition of Rockin' in the Days of Confusion yourself.

Artist:    Three Dog Night
Title:    Liar
Source:    Mono 45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Russ Ballard
Label:    Dunhill
Year:    1971
    Before the Beatles came along a typical pop group consisted of three or more vocalists backed by studio musicians and performing material provided by professional songwriters. In a sense Three Dog Night was a throwback to that earlier model, as the group was formed around a nucleus of three vocalists: Chuck Negron, Cory Wells and Danny Hutton. Unlike the early 60s groups, however, Three Dog Night chose to hire a fixed set of instrumentalists to both play on their records and perform live material (most of which did indeed come from professional songwriters). One of their many hit singles was Liar, a song written by Argent's lead vocalist Russ Ballard and originally released on that group's 1970 debut LP. The Three Dog Night version went into the US top 10 in 1971.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    It Slipped My Mind
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Robby Krieger
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1972
    My first impression of this song was that it almost sounded like a Frank Zappa record. I'm not sure if that's what Robby Krieger had in mind when he wrote It Slipped My Mind, but that's what I got out of it.

Artist:    Jethro Tull
Title:    My Sunday Feeling
Source:    CD: This Was
Writer(s):    Ian Anderson
Label:    Chrysalis/Capitol (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1968
    For years my only copy of Jethro Tull's first LP, This Was, was a cassette copy I had made myself. In fact, the two sides of the album were actually on two different tapes (don't ask why). When I labelled the tapes I neglected to specify which tape had which side of the album; as a result I was under the impression that My Sunday Feeling was the opening track on the album. It turns out it was actually the first track on side two, but I still tend to think of it as the "first" Jethro Tull song, despite the fact that the band had actually released a single, Sunshine Day, the previous year for a different label.

Artist:    Spirit
Title:    Fresh Garbage
Source:    CD: Spirit
Writer(s):    Jay Ferguson
Label:    Ode/Epic/Legacy
Year:    1968
    Much of the material on the first Spirit album was composed by vocalist Jay Ferguson while the band was living in a big house in California's Topanga Canyon outside of Los Angeles. During their stay there was a garbage strike, which became the inspiration for the album's opening track, Fresh Garbage. The song starts off as a fairly hard rocker and suddenly breaks into a section that is pure jazz, showcasing the group's instrumental talents, before returning to the main theme to finish out the track.The group used a similar formula on about half the tracks on the LP, giving the album and the band a distinctive sound right out of the box.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience II
Title:    Isabella
Source:    CD: First Rays Of The New Rising Sun (originally released on LP: War Heroes)
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Atlantic (original label: Reprise)
Year:    Recorded 1970, released 1972
    Although it is generally acknowledged to be one of the songs Jimi Hendrix was considering for inclusion on his fourth studio album, Isabella remained unreleased until 1972, when it was included on the LP War Heroes. Hendrix had already performed the song live at Woodstock with his ad hoc band Gypsy Sun And Rainbows when he decided to record a studio version of the tune in January of 1970 with the Band Of Gypsys lineup featuring bassist Billy Cox and drummer Miles Davis. The original studio recording was prepared for single release but withdrawn as not to cause problems with Capitol Records, the label that had released the Band Of Gypsys live album as satisfaction of a lawsuit that had prevented Hendrix from releasing any new material in 1969. After withdrawing the single, Hendrix decided to rework the song, replacing Miles's drum tracks with new ones performed by Mitch Mitchell, the original Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer. On June 25, 1970, Hendrix declared the song to be ready for a final mix, but he never got around to making that mix. Instead, Mitchell and engineer Eddie Kramer did the final mix on January 31, 1971.

Artist:    Delaney & Bonnie
Title:    Only You Know And I Know
Source:    British import LP: The New Age Of Atlantic (originally released in US as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Dave Mason
Label:    Atlantic (original label: Atco)
Year:    1971
    Guitarist/vocalist Delaney Bramlett and vocalist Bonnie Lynn O'Farrell were both well-established musicians (Bramlett with the Shindogs and O'Farrell with Ike & Tina Turner) when they met and married in 1967, with O'Farrell taking Bramlett's last name. They released their first LP for the Memphis-based Stax label, which was attempting to move into the album market, in 1968. Their second album,  The Original Delaney & Bonnie & Friends (Accept No Substitute), was released on the Elektra label the following year. Although the album was not a big seller, it caught the interest of George Harrison, who offered the duo a contract with Apple Records, which they signed immediately. Unfortunately, they were still under contract to Elektra and the Apple contracted was quickly voided. Later that same year Delaney Bramlett threatened to kill Elektra owner Jac Holzman because The Original Delaney & Bonnie & Friends (Accept No Substitute) was not available where Bramlett's father lived. Around this time, Harrison's friend Eric Clapton invited Delaney & Bonnie to be the opening act for Blind Faith's US tour, and often sat in with them onstage. Meanwhile, Holzman released the duo from their Elektra contract, and Clapton got them signed to Atco, and appeared on their next LP, On Tour With Eric Clapton. Their band also included several members who would go on to become part of Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs & Englishmen band and Clapton's Derek And The Dominos. Their most successful single, released in 1971, was Never Ending Song Of Love, from the LP Motel Shot. They followed it up with the non-LP single Only You Know And I Know, written by former Traffic guitarist Dave Mason, who also performed with Delaney & Bonnie & Friends. The following year the couple's marraige fell apart at around the same time their final album of new material, D&B Together, was released. Only You Know And I Know, available in stereo for the first time, was included on that album.

Artist:    Queen
Title:    You And I
Source:    CD: A Day At The Races
Writer(s):    John Deacon
Label:    Hollywood (original US label: Elektra)
Year:    1976
    Queen bassist John Deacon's songwriting got off to a slow start, with none of his songs appearing on the band's first two albums, and only one on each of the next three. His tune from the fifth Queen album, A Day At The Races, was You And I, a piano-driven piece that Deacon played acoustic guitar on. The song was also released as the B side of the album's second single, but was never performed live by the band.

Artist:    Genesis
Title:    A Trick Of The Tail
Source:    LP: A Trick Of The Tail
Writer(s):    Tony Banks
Label:    Atco
Year:    1976
    Following the departure of original lead vocalist Peter Gabriel, the remaining members of Genesis decided to start assigning songwriting credit to individual band members as opposed to their former practice of crediting the entire group for every composition, starting with the 1976 LP A Trick Of The Tail. The title track, about an alien visiting Earth, had been written by keyboardist Tony Banks for a potential solo project, and was easily adapted as a group piece.

Artist:    Steely Dan
Title:    Fire In The Hole
Source:    Mono 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Becker/Fagen
Label:    ABC
Year:    1972
    Donald Fagen's unique piano style is on display on Fire In The Hole, a track from the first Steely Dan album, Can't Buy A Thrill. The tune also appeared as the B side of Steely Dan's second single (and first hit), Do It Again.

Artist:    George Harrison
Title:    Dark Horse
Source:    LP: Dark Horse
Writer(s):    George Harrison
Label:    Apple
Year:    1974
    Stung by the hostility of some reviewers to the spiritual quality of his 1973 LP Living In The Material World, as well as his deteriorating relationship with Patti Boyd, George Harrison stung back with the release of Dark Horse, the lead single from his 1974 album of the same name. While most American record buyers assumed the title referred to his status as the unexpected winner of the "which Beatle will have the most success as a solo artist" race (his My Sweet Lord was the first single by an ex-Beatle to top the charts), Harrison himself contradicted this interpretation, saying that he was actually unaware of that use of the term when he wrote the song. His intended meaning, he said, was actually Liverpudian slang for the kind of guy who was called a Back Door Man in an old Howlin' Wolf tune written by Willie Dixon.

Artist:    Peter Frampton
Title:    Do You Feel Like We Do
Source:    LP: Frampton Comes Alive
Writer(s):    Peter Frampton
Label:    A&M
Year:    1976
    Top 40 radio programmers hated Peter Frampton's Do You Feel Like We Do from the album Frampton Comes Alive. The song was phenomenally popular, but that popularity was totally dependent on the song's long instrumental section utilizing something called a "talk box" that fed the sound of Frampton's guitar into (and back out of) his mouth. At over fourteen minutes in length, there was no way the song could get played in its entirety on tightly formatted top 40 radio stations, although A&M Records did make an extensively edited seven minute version available to stations (some of which edited the song down even further). The reality is, though, that Do You Feel Like We Do was, and to a degree still is, an "FM hit" generally associated with Album Oriented Rock stations.

Artist:    James Gang
Title:    Got No Time For Trouble
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Bolin/Tesar
Label:    Atco
Year:    1974
    In 1974 the James Gang hired their third lead guitarist since the band made their recording debut in 1969. That guitarist was Tommy Bolin, who had first come to national attention as a member of the Boulder, Colorado band Zephyr. Bolin co-wrote several of the tracks on his first album with the James Gang, Bang, including Got No Time For Trouble, which also was issued as the B side of the only single taken from Bang. Lead vocals on the song are by Roy Kenner, who had joined the James Gang shortly after the departure of the band's original guitarist/vocalist, Joe Walsh.

Artist:    Deep Purple
Title:    Strange Kind Of Woman
Source:    CD: The Very Best Of Deep Purple (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single and in US on LP: Fireball)
Writer(s):    Blackmore/Gillan/Glover/Lord/Paice
Label:    Warner Archives/Rhino (original US label: Warner Brothers)
Year:    1971
    Strange Kind Of Woman was a top 10 hit when it was released as a single in the UK in 1971. Although it was also released in the US, the single got virtually no top 40 airplay and failed to chart. It was, however, included on the US version of the album Fireball, which in turn led to plenty of airplay on FM rock radio, making it one of Deep Purple's most recognizable tunes.


 

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