https://exchange.prx.org/p/541964
Two sets this time around. The first is a simple progression from 1968 to 1971, while the second features prog-rock classics from Renaissance and Genesis. Before any of that, however, we kick things off with an old favorite from Steely Dan.
Artist: Steely Dan
Title: Rikki Don't Lose That Number
Source: LP: Pretzel Logic
Writer(s): Becker/Fagen
Label: MCA (original label: ABC)
Year: 1974
Contrary to what you may have heard, Rikki Don't Lose That Number, from the album Pretzel Logic, is not about using the US Postal Service to mail yourself weed. This is according to both Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, who are generally known for being deliberately obscure. The fact that they both, on separate occasions, have addressed the issue leads me to take their version of the story, that the subject of the song was a young woman Fagen knew in college, as the correct one. What's not in dispute is this: Rikki Don't Lose That Number was Steely Dan's biggest hit single, deservedly so.
Artist: Cream
Title: Sitting On Top Of The World
Source: CD: Wheels Of Fire
Writer: Vinson/Chatmon (original) Chester Burnett (modern version)
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1968
Throughout their existence British blues supergroup Cream recorded covers of blues classics. One of the best of these is Sitting On Top Of The World from the album Wheels Of Fire, which in its earliest form was written by Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatmon and recorded by the Mississippi Shieks in 1930. Cream's version uses the lyrics from the 1957 rewrite of the song by Chester Burnett, better known as Howlin' Wolf.
Artist: Who
Title: The Acid Queen
Source: LP: Tommy
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: Decca
Year: 1969
Pete Townshend, the primary composer of the Who's rock opera Tommy, takes the lead vocals on The Acid Queen, a song that, while integral to the Tommy storyline, also stands as one of Townshend's strongest standalone compositions. The song is sung from the first person viewpoint of a gypsy who promises to cure Tommy's condition (blind, deaf and dumb) by using a combination of sex and drugs. Although her efforts are unsuccessful, the attempt itself has a profound effect on the youngster, who explores his inner self under the influence of LSD. Townshend himself has said that the song is "not just about acid: it's the whole drug thing, the drink thing, the sex thing wrapped into one big ball." In a reference to peer pressure, he adds that "society – people – force it on you. She represents this force." The song later became a hit single for, not surprisingly, Tina Turner, who played the part of the Acid Queen in the hit movie version of Tommy.
Artist: James Gang
Title: The Bomber
Source: German import LP: James Gang Rides Again
Writer(s): Fox/Peters/Walsh/Guaraldi
Label: Probe (original US label: ABC)
Year: 1970
The second James Gang album saw the addition of a new bass player, Dale Peters, who replaced founding member Tom Kriss. Unlike the group's debut LP, James Gang Rides Again consisted almost entirely of material written by the band members themselves. The only exceptions were adaptations of Ravel's Bolero and Vince Guaraldi's Cast Your Fate To The Wind that guitarist Joe Walsh incorporated into the instrumental section of The Bomber, which at seven minutes was the longest track on the album. The beginning and end of The Bomber consist of a piece called Closet Queen, which was composed by the entire band. Shortly after the album's rellease the Ravel estate initiated legal proceedings against the band for using Bolero without permission. In response the record was recalled and a new version with Bolero edited out of the track was released in its place. Fortunately, Vince Guarardi was much cooler about the whole thing, and Cast Your Fate To The Wind remained an integral part of the piece. By the time the album The Best Of The James Gang came out (in 1973) the track had been restored to its original length, except in Germany, where the truncated version heard here was used.
Artist: Rory Gallagher
Title: Can't Believe It's True
Source: British import CD: Spirit Of Joy (originally released on LP: Rory Gallagher)
Writer(s): Rory Gallagher
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1971
In addition to his obvious prowess on guitar, Rory Gallagher was an accomplished saxophonist (although he largely abandoned the instrument in the mid-1970s). Excellent examples of both his guitar and saxophone work can be found on Can't Believe It's True, the final and longest track on Gallagher's first solo album, recorded in 1971. Accompanying Gallagher on the album were drummer Wilgar Campbell and bass guitarist Gerry McAvoy. Gallagher had set up practice sessions with Campbell and McAvoy, as well as former Jimi Hendrix Experience members Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding following the breakup of his original band, Taste, but ultimately decided to form a power trio with the two Belfast natives for his solo debut.
Artist: Renaissance
Title: Things I Don't Understand
Source: LP: Turn Of The Cards
Writer(s): Dunford/McCarty
Label: Sire
Year: 1974
Although co-founded by two former members of the Yardbirds, Keith Relf and Jim McCarty, following the breakup of that band in 1968, by 1974 all traces of the original Renaissance had disappeared, and the band itself had shifted its emphasis to vocalist Annie Haslam and pianist John Tout, supplemented by sweeping orchestral arrangements from Jimmy Horowitz. The final album to feature any contributions from the original lineup was Turn Of The Cards, released in 1974. The LP ends with the nine and a half minute long Things I Don't Understand, co-written by McCarty and guitarist Michael Dunford two years earlier.
Artist: Genesis
Title: Supper's Ready
Source: CD: Foxtrot
Writer(s): Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label: Rhino/Atlantic (original label: Charisma)
Year: 1972
The longest track Genesis ever recorded is also one of their most celebrated. Supper's Ready, from the Foxtrot album, is almost 23 minutes long and takes up most of the second side of the original LP. At least one critic has proclaimed Supper's Ready to be the band's masterpiece. The song (or more accurately, song cycle) was originally released in October of 1972. The piece, with its supernatural imagery and overall theme of good vs. evil, was inspired by an incident at a British castle in which vocalist Peter Gabriel's wife Jill went into a trance state just as the windows of the room they were in suddenly blew open. Supper's Ready is divided into seven sections: Lover's Leap, The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man, Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry Men, How Dare I Be So Beautiful, Willow Farm, Apocalypse in 9/8 (Co-Starring the Delicious Talents of Gabble Ratchet), and the final section, As Sure As Eggs Is Eggs (Aching Men's Feet), which combines elements of some of the earlier parts. From 1972 on Supper's Ready was the centerpiece of the band's stage show throughout Gabriel's tenure as frontman for Genesis.
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