https://exchange.prx.org/p/563835
This week, after a little deja vu from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, we turn things around and work our way backward through the years, starting in 1975 and going all the way back to 1967 to end with an appropriate Doors song.
Artist: Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young
Title: Woodstock
Source: CD: déjà vu
Writer(s): Joni Mitchell
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1970
It's somewhat ironic that the most famous song about the Woodstock Music and Art Festival was written by someone who was not even at the event. Joni Mitchell had been advised by her manager that she would be better off appearing on the Dick Cavett show that weekend, so she stayed in her New York City hotel room and watched televised reports of what was going on up at Max Yasgur's farm. Further inspiration came from her then-boyfried Graham Nash, who shared his firsthand experiences of the festival with Mitchell. The song was first released on the 1970 album Ladies Of The Canyon, and was made famous the same year when it was chosen to be the first single released from the Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young album déjà vu. The CSNY version peaked just outside of the Billboard top 10 in the US, but did not chart at all in the UK, prompting Fairport Convention co-founder Iain Matthews to release his own version of the song with his band Matthews Southern Comfort later that year that ended up going all the way to the #1 spot on the British charts.
Artist: Robin Trower
Title: Shame The Devil
Source: LP: From Earth Below
Writer(s): Robin Trower
Label: Chrysalis
Year: 1975
For Earth Below was Robin Trower's third studio album, following up on the phenomenally successful Bridge Of Sighs LP. Structured along the same lines, the main difference between the two was the replacement of drummer Reg Isidore with Bill Lordan, a veteran of the Minnesota prog-rock band Gypsy, who would continue to work with Trower for the next half dozen years. Shame The Devil is the first track on For Earth Below.
Artist: Black Sheep
Title: Stick Around
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Grammatico/Turgon
Label: Chrysalis
Year: 1974
Before he shortened his stage name to Lou Gramm and became famous as Foreigner's front man, Louis Grammatico was a member of the Rochester, NY band Black Sheep, which released two LPs on the Capitol label in 1975. What a lot of his fans don't know, however, is that those two albums were not Black Sheep's only major label releases. In 1974, before signing to Capitol, Black Sheep released a single on the Chrysalis label. Stick Around was written by Graham and bassist Bruce Turgon, who would play on Gramm's solo albums in the late 1980s and eventually become a member of Foreigner itself in 1992.
Artist: National Lampoon featuring John Belushi
Title: Megadeath
Source: LP: Lemmings
Writer(s): Jacobs/Kelly
Label: ABC/Blue Thumb
Year: 1973
Lemmings was a stage production put on by National Lampoon magazine. The first act was a series of comedy sketches, similar to what had been heard on the National Lampoon Radio Hour and is considered the template for the later TV show NBC Saturday Night (later Saturday Night Live), while the second half was a musical parody of the Woodstock festival in which the main goal of both the performers and audience was to commit mass suicide. The various musical numbers in Lemmings were performed by a stage band that included Christopher Guest and Paul Jacobs on guitars, Chevy Chase on drums and John Belushi on bass guitar. Belushi also provided the stage announcements and lead vocals for several numbers, including Megadeath, a parody of heavy metal bands introduced by Megagroupie Alice Playten.
Artist: Yes
Title: America
Source: CD: Yesterdays (originally released in UK on LP: The New Age of Atlantic)
Writer: Paul Simon
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1972
Following the success of the Fragile album and the hit single Roundabout, Yes went into the studio to cut a ten and a half minute cover of Paul Simon's America for a UK-only sampler album called The New Age Of Atlantic. The track was then edited down to about four minutes for single release in the US as a followup to Roundabout. The original unedited track was finally released in the US on the 1974 album Yesterdays, which also included several tracks from two earlier Yes albums that featured an earlier lineup of the band that included guitarist Peter Banks and keyboardist Tony Kaye. Paul Simon's America was, in fact, the only track on Yesterdays that featured the most successful Yes lineup of Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squires, Bill Bruford and Rick Wakeman.
Artist: James Gang
Title: Things I Could Be
Source: LP: Thirds
Writer(s): Jim Fox
Label: ABC
Year: 1971
Although James Gang is best known as the band that brought fame to guitarist/vocalist Joe Walsh, the band actually existed both before and after Walsh was in the group, with the only member to appear in all incarnations of the band being Jim Fox, who formed the band in 1966 after two stints as drummer for Cleveland's Outsiders (although he was on hiatus from the group when they recorded their big hit Time Won't Let Me). Fox wrote and sang lead on Things I Could Be, from the third James Gang album.
Artist: Derek And The Dominos
Title: Anyday
Source: CD: Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs
Writer(s): Clapton/Whitlock
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1970
Derek And The Dominos was originally an attempt by Eric Clapton to remove himself from the solo spotlight and work in a larger group setting than he had with his previous bands, Cream and Blind Faith. Such was Clapton's stature, however, that even among talents like Jim Gordon, Carl Radle and Bobby Whitlock, Clapton was still the star. However, there was one unofficial member of the group whose own star was in ascendancy. Duane Allman, who had chosen to stick with his own group the Allman Brothers Band, nonetheless played on eleven of the fourteen tracks on Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs. His slide guitar work is especially noticeable on the title track and on the song Anyday, which remains one of the most popular songs on the album.
Artist: Spirit
Title: New Dope In Town
Source: German import LP: Underground '70 (originally released on LP: Clear)
Writer(s): Andes/California/Cassidy/Ferguson/Locke
Label: CBS (original US label: Columbia)
Year: 1969
The third Spirit album, Clear, is generally considered the weakest of the four albums released by the band's original lineup. The main reason for this is fatigue. The group had released two albums in 1968, along with providing the soundtrack for the film Model Shop in early 1969 and constantly touring throughout the entire period. This left them little time to develop the material that would be included on Clear. There are a few strong tracks on the LP, however, among them New Dope In Town, which closes out the original LP. Like Elijah, from their debut album, New Dope In Town is credited to the entire band, and was included on a CBS Records sampler album called Underground '70 that was released in Germany (on purple vinyl that glows under a black light, even) around Christmastime.
Artist: Steppenwolf
Title: Born To Be Wild
Source: CD: Bron To Be Wild-A Retrospective (originally released on LP: Steppenwolf)
Writer(s): Mars Bonfire
Label: MCA (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1968
Born To Be Wild's status as a counter-cultural anthem was cemented when it was chosen for the soundtrack of the movie Easy Rider. The popularity of both the song and the movie resulted in Steppenwolf becoming the all-time favorite band of bikers all over the world.
Artist: Doors
Title: When The Music's Over
Source: CD: The Best Of The Doors (originally released on LP: Strange Days)
Writer: The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
I remember the first time I heard When The Music's Over. My girlfriend's older brother had the new Doors album on the stereo in his room and told us to get real close to the speakers so we could hear the sound of a butterfly while he turned the volume way up. What we got, of course, was a blast of "...we want the world and we want it now." Good times.
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