https://exchange.prx.org/p/561337
It's another free-form week on Rockin' in the Days of Confusion, with a dozen tunes ranging from 1968 to 1974, including some B sides never heard on the show before.
Artist: Al Kooper/Stephen Stills/Harvey Brooks/Eddie Hoh
Title: Season Of The Witch
Source: CD: Super Session
Writer(s): Donovan Leitch
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1968
In 1968 Al Kooper, formerly of the Blues Project, formed a new group he called Blood, Sweat and Tears. Then, after recording one album with the new group, he left the band. He then booked studio time and called in his friend Michael Bloomfield (who had just left his own new band the Electric Flag) for a recorded jam session. Due to his chronic insomnia and inclination to use heroin to deal with said insomnia, Bloomfield was unable to record an entire album's worth of material, and Kooper called in another friend, Stephen Stills (who had recently left the Buffalo Springfield) to complete the project. The result was the Super Session album, which surprisingly (considering that it was the first album of its kind), made the top 10 album chart. One of the most popular tracks on Super Session was an extended version of Donovan's Season of the Witch, featuring Stills using a wah-wah pedal (a relatively new invention at the time). Kooper initially felt that the basic tracks needed some sweetening, so he brought in a horn section to record additional overdubs.
Artist: Taste
Title: Blister On The Moon
Source: British import CD: Taste
Writer(s): Rory Gallagher
Label: Polydor (original US label: Atco)
Year: 1969
Formed by guitarist Rory Gallagher in Cork, Ireland, in 1966, Taste disbanded and reformed in 1968 after a move to London. After making a strong impression opening for Cream in late 1968, they signed with the Polydor label, releasing their first LP in April of 1969. The album rocks hard from the first note of the first track, a Gallagher tune called Blister On The Moon, and doesn't stop.
Artist: David Bowie
Title: The Man Who Sold The World
Source: CD: The Man Who Sold The World
Writer(s): David Bowie
Label: Parlophone (original label: Mercury)
Year: 1970
The Man Who Sold The World is the title track of David Bowie's third LP. At the time, Bowie was a relatively obscure artist still looking for an audience and, in his own words, an identity as well. Unlike other Bowie albums, The Man Who Sold The World was released in the US several months earlier than in the UK. The song itself was not considered single material at the time, although it ended up being a surprise hit in the UK for Lulu in 1974, and became popular with a whole new generation when Nirvana released an unplugged version of the tune in 1993. After Bowie signed with RCA, The Man Who Sold The World was re-issued as the B side of Space Oddity in 1972.
Artist: Blind Faith
Title: Had To Cry Today
Source: CD: Blind Faith
Writer(s): Steve Winwood
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1969
One of the most eagerly-awaited albums of 1969 was Blind Faith, the self-titled debut album of a group consisting of Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker from Cream, Steve Winwood from Traffic and Rich Grech, who had played bass (and violin) with a group called Family. The buzz about this new band was such that the rock press had to coin a brand-new term to describe it: supergroup. On release, the album shot up to the number one spot on the charts in record time. Of course, as subsequent supergroups have shown, such bands seldom stick around very long, and Blind Faith set the pattern early on by splitting up after just one LP and a short tour to promote it. The opening track of the album was a pure Winwood piece that showcases both Winwood and Clapton on separate simultaneous guitar tracks.
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Title: Tangerine
Source: CD: Led Zeppelin III
Writer(s): Jimmy Page
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1970
The third Led Zeppelin album, released in 1970, saw the band expanding beyond its blues-rock roots into more acoustic territory. This was in large part because the band had, after an exhausting North American concert tour, decided to take a break, with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page renting an 18th century cottage in Wales that had no electricity. While there, the two composed most of the music that would become Led Zeppelin III. Once the music was written, the band reunited in a run-down mansion at Headley Grange to rehearse the new material, giving the entire project a more relaxed feel. Only one song on the album, Tangerine, is credited solely to Jimmy Page; as it turns out Tangerine would be the last original Led Zeppelin song that Plant did not write lyrics for (excepting instrumentals of course).
Artist: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Title: Fish Song
Source: 45 RPM single B side (originally released on LP: All The Good Times)
Writer(s): Jimmie Fadden
Label: United Artists
Year: 1972
Following the success of their 1970 album Uncle Charlie And His Dog Teddy (with the international hit Mr. Bojangles), the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band took their time on their next LP, All The Good Times. The new album had no hit singles of its own, but one track, Fish Song, was selected for release as a B side to their 1973 single Cosmic Cowboy, which, although not a big AM hit, did get some modest airplay on a handful of FM stations that were experimenting with country-rock.
Artist: Spirit
Title: Animal Zoo
Source: CD: The Best Of Spirit
Writer: Jay Ferguson
Label: Epic
Year: 1970
The last album by the original lineup of Spirit was The Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus, released in 1970. The album was originally going to be produced by Neil Young, but due to other commitments Young had to bow out, recommending David Briggs, who had already produced Young's first album with Crazy Horse, as a replacement. The first song to be released as a single was Animal Zoo, but the tune barely cracked the top 100 charts. The album itself did better on progressive FM stations and has since come to be regarded as a classic. Shortly after the release of Twelve Dreams, Jay Ferguson and Mark Andes left Spirit to form Jo Jo Gunne.
Artist: Focus
Title: Hocus Pocus II
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Akkerman/van Leer
Label: Sire
Year: 1973
Although it was recorded and originally released in Europe and the UK as a single in 1971, the edited version of Hocus Pocus did not chart outside the Netherlands and was not released at all in the western hemisphere until 1973, when it came out with an entirely different and newly recorded B side called Hocus Pocus II. The new tune starts off with a slower funk beat before breaking into a slightly faster variation on the original theme, returning to the funk beat toward the end of the track. Hocus Pocus II was not released in Europe until 1975, when it appeared on a compilation album called Dutch Masters (1969-1973).
Artist: Badfinger
Title: Rock Of All Ages
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Evans/Ham/Gibbons
Label: Apple
Year: 1972
Badfinger's first hit, Come And Get It, was written by Paul McCartney, so it's entirely appropriate that the B side of that single, Rock Of All Ages, sounds a lot like the Beatles' cover of Little Richard's Long Tall Sally. According to bassist Tom Evans, the band was recording material for the film Magic Christian, and hadn't come up anything that really rocked out. When producer McCartney asked them what they knew that was "really exciting" they told him Long Tall Sally, and went on to write Rock Of All Ages on the fly with McCartney on piano. McCartney then left the band to come up with lyrics and the song's final structure while he went shopping, and by the time he got back the band had finished recording what became the song's backing track.
Artist: Savoy Brown
Title: Lost And Lonely Child
Source: LP: Hellbound Train
Writer(s): Kim Simmonds
Label: Parrot
Year: 1972
Sometimes an album comes out that outperforms an artists' previous efforts commercially, yet is a disappointment from an artistic standpoint. Such is the case with Savoy Brown's eight album, Hellbound Train. Many of the songs, including Lost And Lonely Child, sound like they were stretched out just to fill up space on the album, although Kim Simmonds guitar work is still worth listening to.
Artist: Charlie Daniels Band
Title: Volunteer Jam (part 3)
Source: 45 RPM EP (included as a bonus with early copies of LP: Fire On The Mountain)
Writer(s): Charlie Daniels Band
Label: Kama Sutra
Year: 1974
On October 4, 1974 the Charlie Daniels Band performed at the War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville, with two of the songs to be included on the album Fire On The Mountain. Once the concert was done, the band invited some friends, including Dickey Betts and a few members of the Marshall Tucker Band to stick around and jam for what became the first Volunteer Jam. Parts of the session were included with the album on a 7" 45 RPM bonus disc. Daniels would end up hosting fifteen more Volunteer Jams over the next 20-plus years.
Artist: Doobie Brothers
Title: Song To See You Through
Source: LP: What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits
Writer(s): Tom Johnston
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1974
The title of the first track on the fourth Doobie Brothers album, What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits, is pretty much self-explanatory. As for who Song To See You Through was written for, perhaps only guitarist/vocalist Tom Johnston knows for sure.
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