https://exchange.prx.org/p/562983
This week we manage to fit 16 pieces into the puzzle that is Rockin' in the Days of Confusion, ranging from 1967 to 1974 and including half a dozen that have never been played on the show before.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Preservation
Source: 45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s): Ray Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1974
The Kinks' Preservation was a song that served as a summation of the band's 1974 concept album, Preservation-Act 1. Oddly enough, the song itself was not included on either that album or its followup, Preservation-Act 2, instead being released as a non-album single in 1974. There were two versions of the song, the longer of which is heard here. My copy is a bit on the scratchy side, but given the fact that the single failed to chart, I consider myself lucky to have a copy of it at all.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Foxy Lady
Source: CD: The Ultimate Experience (originally released on LP: Are You Experienced)
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
The first track on the original UK release of Are You Experienced was Foxy Lady. The British custom of the time was to not include any songs on albums that had been previously released as singles. When Reprise Records got the rights to release the album in the US, it was decided to include three songs that had all been top 40 hits in the UK. One of those songs, Purple Haze, took over the opening spot on the album, and Foxy Lady was moved to the middle of side 2.
Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Title: Commotion
Source: CD: Chronicles (originally released as 45 RPM B side and included on LP: Green River)
Writer(s): John Fogerty
Label: Fantasy
Year: 1969
When I co-founded Ramstein Air Base's first power trio in 1969 one of the first songs we learned to play was Creedence Clearwater Revival's Commotion, which we learned by listening to the B side of Green River over and over. Who needs sheet music, anyway?
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 that was later covered by the Yardbirds as their first single.
Artist: Gypsy
Title: Late December
Source: LP: Gypsy
Writer(s): Enrico Rosenbaum
Label: Metromedia
Year: 1970
Originally formed as the Underbeats in 1962, Gypsy had its greatest success after changing their name and moving to L.A. in 1969. They became the house band at the legendary Whisky-A-Go-Go for about eight months, starting in September of 1969, and during that time signed with Metromedia Records, a company owned by what would eventually become the Fox Television Network. The band made their recording debut with a double LP that included the single Gypsy Queen. Most of the band's material was written by guitarist/vocalist Enrico Rosenbaum, including Late December, a song best described as a vengeance ballad (using the word ballad in its original sense). After one more LP for Metromedia, the band started going through a series of personnel changes, eventually (after Rosenbaum's departure) changing their name to the James Walsh Gypsy Band (Walsh being the keyboardist of the group). Drummer Bill Lordan, after a short stint with Sly and the Family Stone, joined up with Robin Trower, an association that lasted many years.
Artist: Uriah Heep
Title: Tears In My Eyes (extended version)
Source: European Import CD: Look At Yourself
Writer(s): Ken Hensley
Label: Sanctuary
Year: Recorded 1971, released 2003
Most people who heard Uriah Heep's first album agreed that the band had potential. That potential was realized with the 1971 album Look At Yourself. One of the more popular songs on the album was Tears In My Eyes, which opened side two of the original LP. The version on the album was actually edited down from the original tapes. This version is a slightly longer edit, with an extended acoustic section in the middle of the piece.
Artist: Edgar Winter Group
Title: Free Ride
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Dan Hartman
Label: Epic
Year: 1972
Some songs released in the 1960s and 1970s were mixed differently for single release than their LP counterparts. This may have been because, until around 1978 or so, most top 40 stations operated on the AM band, which had different audio dynamics than FM radio. For instance, Free Ride, from the Edgar Winter Band's LP They Only Come Out At Night, had a significantly brighter guitar track, added harmonics, a fuzz bass added to the bridge, and other enhancements on the 45 RPM single that were not present on the original LP version of the song. The tune, written by bassist Dan Hartman, ended up being one of the band's biggest hits, so they must have been on to something.
Artist: Lily Tomlin
Title: Peeved
Source: LP: This Is A Recording
Writer(s): Jim Rusk
Label: Polydor
Year: 1971
The first thing that struck me about Lily Tomlin's debut album, This Is A Recording, even before I put it on the turntable, was the fact that each of the LP's 17 tracks had its own writing credit. As it is usually left to the listener to assume that the artist also wrote all the material, I found this to be a particularly generous act on the part of Tomlin. The LP itself documents Tomlin's one-woman show recorded live at the Ice House in Pasadena, California, and features one-sided telephone conversations from Ernestine, Tomlin's most famous character from her days as a regular on the television show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, along with a short piece called Peeved in which Tomlin temporarily steps out of character to address the audience directly. The album went to the #15 spot on the Billboard Hot 200 albums chart, the highest chart position ever achieved by a solo comedy album from a woman.
Artist: Joni Mitchell
Title: Cactus Tree
Source: LP: Miles Of Aisles
Writer(s): Joni Mitchell
Label: Asylum
Year: 1974
Joni Mitchell's first live album, Miles Of Aisles, was one of her most commercially successful LPs, going all the way to the #2 spot on the Billboard album charts in 1974. The album, which features Tom Scott and the L.A. Express as her stage band, includes some of her best-known tunes from her first six studio LPs. Cactus Tree is the only song on Miles Of Aisles that dates back to her 1968 debut album, Song To A Seagull.
Artist: David Crosby
Title: Laughing
Source: CD: If I Could Only Remember My Name
Writer(s): David Crosby
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1971
David Crosby brought in a few friends for his first solo album, If I Could Only Remember My Name. Laughing, the final track on side one of the 1971 LP, features Jerry Garcia on pedal steel guitar, Phil Lesh on bass, Bill Kreutzmann on drums and Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell on backup vocals. Guitar parts were provided by Crosby himself.
Artist: Five Man Electrical Band
Title: Absolutely Right
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Les Emmerson
Label: Lionel
Year: 1971
Formed in Ottawa in 1963, the Staccatos had a string of Canadian hits from 1963 throught 1968. After their producer, Nick Venet, told the band that the name Staccatos sounded dated, the band rechristened themselves The Five Man Electric Band, releasing their first album under that name (including several tracks originally released as Staccatos singles) in 1969. The band switched labels and released the album Good-byes and Butterflies in 1970. The following year, the opening track from Good-byes and Butterflies became an international hit. Originally issued as a B side in October of 1970, Signs was re-released in February of 1971, and by summer was in the top 5 in both the US and Canada, as well as spending two weeks at #1 in Australia. The band followed it up with a song called Absolutely Right. Although the song made the top 10 in several US and Canadian cities, it only peaked at a disappointing #26 on the Billboard charts. After two more albums and several more singles, the Five Man Electrical Band finally disbanded in 1975.
Artist: Sugarloaf
Title: Mother Nature's Wine
Source: LP: Spaceship Earth
Writer: Corbetta/Phillips/Reardon
Label: Liberty
Year: 1971
Despite being a better album overall than Sugarloaf's first LP, Spaceship Earth did not sell particularly well, only making it to the #111 spot on the Billboard albums chart. This is probably due to the lack of a hit single on a par with Green-Eyed Lady. Of the two singles that were released from Spaceship Earth, the one more similar in style to Green-Eyed Lady was Mother Nature's Wine. The song stalled out in the # 88 spot however, and Sugarloaf did not have another charted single until 1974, when the semi-novelty tune Don't Call Us, We'll Call You made the top 10.
Artist: Janis Joplin
Title: Mercedes Benz
Source: CD: Pearl
Writer: Janis Joplin
Label: Columbia
Year: 1970
I have mixed feelings about Paul Rothchild. On the one hand, he was instrumental in making the Doors famous, and produced their first half dozen or so albums. However, he also was responsible for the horns and strings that made much of The Soft Parade unlistenable, and he strongly opposed (to the point of resigning as the Doors' producer) the band's back-to-basics approach that resulted in L.A. Woman, their best album since 1967 (in fact, he had nothing good to say about Riders On The Storm in particular, calling the track "boring" and "a step backwards"). So, when it comes to Janis Joplin and her relationship to Rothchild, I find myself skeptical of anything Rothchild himself had to say on the matter. According to Rothchild, Janis was finally getting the support she deserved once Rothchild signed on as her producer. He has stated that she was happy to finally be working with musicians that she was completely in synch with (the Full-Tilt Boogie Band) and was at her creative peak. He has also said that he loved Janis deeply. So, I have to ask, if she was so happy and loved, why did she go out and OD on heroin right after recording Mercedes Benz? From what I know of Joplin, it is more likely she was feeling trapped, and took what she saw as the only way out. The last thing a free spirit like Janis Joplin needed was to be around a control freak who had somewhat warped ideas of what was good for people (strings and horns on a Doors album? Come on, really??). All this is, of course, conjecture on my part, but it sure feels like a pretty accurate assessment of the situation to me.
Artist: Black Sabbath
Title: Iron Man
Source: LP: Heavy Metal (originally released on LP: Paranoid)
Writer(s): Iommi/Osbourne/Butler/Ward
Label: Warner Special Products
Year: 1970
Black Sabbath tended to write songs as a group, with Tony Iommi coming up with a guitar riff, Ozzy Osbourne figuring out a melody, Geezer Butler writing lyrics and Bill Ward adding the finishing touches with his drum set. One of their most famous tracks, Iron Man, started off exactly that way. When Ozzy Osbourne heard Tony Iommi's riff he remarked that it sounded "like a big iron bloke walking about". Butler took the idea and ran with it, coming up with a song about a man who travels to the future, sees the devastation and returns to his own time to try to change things. Unfortunately he gets caught in a magnetic field that turns him into living steel, mute and unable to verbally express himself. His efforts to communicate are met with indifference and even mockery, angering him to the point that he himself becomes the cause of the destruction he had witnessed. The song is considered one of foundation stones of what came to be called heavy metal. It's continued popularity is evidenced by the fact that it was used in the Iron Man movies, despite having no real connection to the film, other than being the title character's favorite song.
Artist: Grand Funk Railroad
Title: Aimless Lady
Source: CD: Closer To Home
Writer(s): Mark Farner
Label: Capitol
Year: 1970
Despite being universally panned by the rock press, Grand Funk Railroad managed to achieve gold record status three times in the year 1970. The first two of these were actually released the previous year, but it was the massive success of their third LP, Closer To Home, that spurred sales of the band's albums overall. All of the songs on Closer To Home were written and sung by guitarist Mark Farner, including Aimless Lady, probably the best example on the album of a "typical" Grand Funk Railroad song.
Artist: Buoys
Title: Timothy
Source: Mono 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Rupert Holmes
Label: Scepter
Year: 1970
Rupert Holmes wrote the 1970 song Timothy, dealing with cannibalism, specifically to get banned from top 40 radio, thus giving him a measure of notoriety. What he didn't bargain for, however, was the song becoming a hit single anyway, despite the best efforts of the shirts at Scepter Records to convince everyone that "Timothy" was in fact, a mule, and not one of the miners caught in a cave-in. Holmes himself set the record straight in an interview, but by that time the song had hit the #17 spot on the Billboard Hot 100. Holmes had intended the song to be recorded by a band called the Glass Prism, who had released an album of Edgar Allan Poe's poetry set to music the previous year. The Glass Prism, however, was under contract to RCA Victor, and was unavailable to record the song. Instead, Holmes chose the Buoys, a band from Scranton, Pennsylvania, who had been signed to, and then virtually ignored by, the New York-based Scepter Records. Holmes, who played keyboards on the song, went on to write several more songs for the Buoys, all of which were from the point of view of someone who had committed some sort of crime. Holmes ended up becoming more famous, in the long run, for a song called Escape (The Piña Colada Song) that he released under his own name in 1979.
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