https://exchange.prx.org/p/552875
After a short B side to get us in the proper spirit of the season we have a long set of tunes from 1971, most of which are album tracks. From there it's a short visit to the late 1960s before wrapping things up with a hopeful message from Stealer's Wheel.
Artist: Greg Lake
Title: Humbug
Source: British import 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Lake/Sinfield
Label: Manticore
Year: 1975
Peter Sinfield is best known for writing lyrics for King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and other progressive rock groups. This particular piece, however, which appeared as the B side of Greg Lake's I Believe In Father Christmas, only has one word, repeated several times throughout the tune.
Artist: Black Sabbath
Title: Embryo/Children Of The Grave
Source: CD: Master Of Reality
Writer(s): Iommi/Osbourne/Butler/Ward
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1971
One of the spookiest experiences in my life was crashing at a stranger's house after having my mind blown at a Grand Funk Railroad/Black Oak Arkansas concert in the fall of 1971. A bunch of us had ridden back to Weatherford, Oklahoma, from Norman (about an hour's drive) and somehow I ended up separated from my friends Mike and DeWayne, in whose college dorm room I had been crashing for a couple of days. So here I am in some total stranger's house, lying on the couch in this room with black walls, a black light, a few posters and a cheap stereo playing a brand new album I had never heard before: Black Sabbath's Master Of Reality. Suddenly I notice this weird little tapping sound going back and forth from speaker to speaker. Such was my state of mind at the time that I really couldn't tell if it was a hallucination or not. The stereo was one of those late 60s models that you could stack albums on, and whoever had put the album on had left the stereo in repeat mode before heading off to bed, with no more albums stacked after the Sabbath LP. This meant that every twenty minutes or so I would hear Children Of The Grave, with that weird little tapping sound going back and forth from speaker to speaker. Trust me, it was creepy, as was the whispering at the end of track. No wonder Ozzy Ozbourne called Children Of The Grave "the most kick-ass song we'd ever recorded."
Artist: Alice Cooper
Title: Yeah, Yeah, Yeah
Source: CD: Killer
Writer(s): Cooper/Bruce
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1971
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah is one of two songs on Alice Cooper's 1971 LP Killer that can be labelled straight rock 'n' roll (the other being Under My Wheels). It was co-written by rhythm guitarist Michael Bruce and lead vocalist Vincent Furnier (aka Alice Cooper) and has long been overshadowed by other songs on the album such as Dead Babies and Desperado.
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Title: Four Sticks
Source: CD: Led Zeppelin IV
Writer(s): Page/Plant
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1971
One of the most difficult songs to record in the Led Zeppelin catalog, Four Sticks, from the fourth Zeppelin album, did not have a name until John Bonham's final drum track was recorded. He reportedly was having such a hard time with the song that he ended up using four drumsticks, rather than the usual two (don't ask me how he held the extra pair) and beat on his drums as hard as he could, recording what he considered the perfect take in the process.
Artist: Santana
Title: No One To Depend On
Source: Mexican import LP: Los Grandes Exitos de Santana (originally released on LP: Santana)
Writer(s): Carabella/Escobida/Rolie
Label: Columbia
Year: 1971
Santana's third LP (which like their debut LP was called simply Santana), was the last by the band's original lineup. Among the better-known tracks on the LP was No One To Depend On, featuring a guitar solo by teen phenom Neal Schon (who would go on to co-found Journey). The song was left off the band's first Greatest Hits album in most countries, but was included on the Mexican version of the LP, Los Grandes Exitos de Santana. It was, at the time, the only time the single version of the song was issued in stereo without the fade in from Batuka, which precedes it on the original LP.
Artist: Eric Burdon & War
Title: Home Dream
Source: LP: Love Is All Around (originally released on LP: Guilty)
Writer(s): Eric Burdon
Label: ABC (original label: M-G-M)
Year: 1971
Although it first appeared on the 1971 Eric Burdon/Jimmy Witherspoon album Guilty, Burdon's Home Dream was actually performed by Burdon and War, and was included on their 1976 reunion LP Love Is All Around. An edited version of the song was also issued as a B side in 1977.
Artist: Humble Pie
Title: Four Day Creep
Source: CD: Performance Rockin' The Fillmore
Writer(s): Ida Cox
Label: A&M
Year: 1971
The opening track on Humble Pie's 1971 live album Performance Rockin' The Fillmore is NOT an Ida Cox song called Four Day Creep, regardless of what it says on the label. I've heard the Ida Cox performance of Four Day Creep, and it is an entirely different song. Different melody. Different chord structure. Different lyrics. The only thing I can figure is that someone in the band really liked Ida Cox and wanted to see her get some royalty money, so they tacked her name and song title onto this track. I hope it worked.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Wild Horses
Source: CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: Rolling Stones)
Year: 1971
Although it was recorded in 1969, the release of Wild Horses was held up for over a year because of ongoing litigation between the Rolling Stones, who were in the process of forming their own record label, and Allen Klein, who had managed to legally steal the rights to all of the band's recordings for the British Decca label (most of which had appeared in the US on the London label). Eventually both Wild Horses and Brown Sugar (recorded at the same sessions) became the joint property of the Rolling Stones and Klein and were released as singles on the new Rolling Stones label in 1971.
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: Canned Heat
Title: Going Up The Country
Source: British import CD: Living The Blues
Writer(s): Alan Wilson
Label: BGO (original US label: Liberty)
Year: 1968
Canned Heat built up a solid reputation as one of the best blues-rock bands in history, recording several critically-acclaimed albums over a period of years. What they did not have, however, was a top 10 single. The nearest they got was Going Up The Country from their late 1968 LP Living The Blues, which peaked in the #11 spot in early 1969.
Artist: Crosby, Stills And Nash
Title: Marrakesh Express
Source: CD: Crosby, Stills And Nash
Writer(s): Graham Nash
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1969
The first time I ever heard of Crosby, Stills And Nash was on Europe's powerhouse AM station Radio Luxembourg, which broadcast in an American-style top 40 format during the evening and into the early morning hours. As was common on top 40 stations, Radio Luxembourg had a "pick hit of the week", a newly-released song that the station's DJs felt was bound to be a big hit. One night in July of 1969 I tuned in and heard the premier of the station's latest pick hit: Marrakesh Express, by Crosby, Stills And Nash. Sure enough, the song climbed the British charts rather quickly, peaking at #17 (20 positions higher than in the US). The song itself was based on real events that Graham Nash experienced on a train ride in Morocco while still a member of the Hollies. Nash had been riding first class when he got bored and decided to check out what was happening in the other cars. He was so impressed by the sheer variety of what he saw (including ducks and chickens on the train itself) that he decided to write a song about it. The other members of the Hollies were not particularly impressed with the song, however, and its rejection was one of the factors that led to Nash leaving the band and moving to the US, where he hooked up with David Crosby and Stephen Stills. Crosby and Stills liked the song, and it became the trio's first single.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: I'm Coming On
Source: CD: Watt
Writer(s): Alvin Lee
Label: Chrysalis (original label: Deram)
Year: 1970
The rock press had generally unfavorable things to say about the 1970 Ten Years After album Watt. Personally, I liked the album from the first time I played it. I suspect that the critics' negative reaction had more to do with their own changing tastes and expectations than with the actual quality of the album itself. I'm Coming On, the LP's opening track, is a solid rocker with a catchy opening riff. Granted, the lyrics are not particularly memorable, but then, Alvin Lee was basically a guitarist first and vocalist second, so it only stands to reason that his compositions would favor the musical side of things over the lyrics. Hey, if you want poetry, check out Bob Dylan, right?
Artist: Stealer's Wheel
Title: Everyone's Agreed That Everything Will Turn Out Fine
Source: Mono 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Egan/Rafferty
Label: A&M
Year: 1973
Not long after Stuck In The Middle With You became an international success in 1973, all the members of Stealers Wheel except for founders Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty left the group. Rather than recruit replacements, Stealers Wheel officially became a duo, supplementing their sound with studio musicians. Their next single was Everyone's Agreed That Everything Will Turn Out Fine, a strong tune that probably should have done better than it did (it hit #33 in the UK and stalled out at #49 in the US). The LP Ferguslie Park didn't do any better and by the time a third LP, Right Or Wrong, was released Stealers Wheel had officially disbanded. Rafferty would go on to score a major hit with the song Baker Street in 1978.
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