https://exchange.prx.org/p/574332
All the tunes on this week's show are from the years 1969-1971, including a few tracks never played on Rockin' in the Days of Confusion before.
Artist: Alice Cooper
Title: Desperado
Source: LP: Killer
Writer(s): Cooper/Bruce
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1971
Alice Cooper (the singer, not the band) has made conflicting statements concerning the inspiration/subject matter of Desperado, from the Killer album. In the liner notes of Fistful Of Alice (and elsewhere) the flamboyant vocalist said the song was written about his friend Jim Morrison, who died in 1971, the same year Killer was released. However, he has also said (in a radio interview) that the song was inspired by Robert Vaughn's character in the film The Magnificent Seven. Whatever the song's origins, Desperado has proved to be one of the band's most popular numbers, appearing on various greatest hits compilations over the years.
Artist: Johnny Winter
Title: I'm Not Sure
Source: LP: Second Winter
Writer(s): Johnny Winter
Label: Columbia
Year: 1969
Johnny Winter had been performing for several years throughout the state of Texas before releasing his first full-length LP on the regional Sonobeat label in 1968. The album, which featured the trio of Winter on guitar, Tommy Shannon on bass and Uncle John Turner on drums, was strong enough for Imperial to pick up for national distribution, and soon led to Winter signing with Columbia records in 1969. After a strong debut album for the label, the group, which by then had added Johnny's brother Edgar on keyboards, went to work on a second album for the label. The band soon found itself with an unusual dilemma, however. They had recorded too much material for one LP, but not enough for a double album. Rather than sacrifice sound quality by making the grooves narrower, the band decided to issue a special "three-sided" LP, with the fourth side being nothing but shiny black vinyl with no grooves cut into it. The album, which is considered by many to be Winter's finest studio work, includes several original tunes such as I'm Not Sure, which features Johnny Winter on electric mandolin and Edgar on harpsichord; an unusual combination for a blues recording, to be sure, but it works.
Artist: Taste
Title: I'm Moving On
Source: British import CD: Taste
Writer(s): Hank Snow
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. One of the more unexpected tunes on the album is a reworking of Hank Snow's first major hit, I'm Moving On.
Artist: Santana
Title: Singing Winds, Crying Beasts/Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen/Oye Como Va
Source: CD: Abraxas
Writer: Carabello/Green/Szabo/Puente
Label: Columbia
Year: 1970
Following their successful performance at Woodstock, the members of Santana went to work on their second LP, Abraxas. The album feature's one of the stongest opening sequences in rock history, with the instrumental Singing Winds, Crying Beasts, written by percussionist Michael Carabello, segueing directly into the band's first major hit, a cover of Fleetwood Mac's Black Magic Woman, which in turn morphs into Gabor Szabo's Gypsy Queen, and finally Tito Puente's Oye Como Va.
Artist: Chicago
Title: 25 Or 6 To 4
Source: CD: Chicago
Writer(s): Robert Lamm
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1970
For their second LP, Chicago (which had just dropped the words "Transit Authority" from their name in response to a threatened lawsuit) tried out all three of their lead vocalists on each new song to hear who sounded the best for that particular song. In the case of Robert Lamm's 25 Or 6 To 4, bassist Peter Cetera did the honors. The song became a top 10 single both in the US and UK. Despite rumors to the contrary, Lamm says 25 Or 6 To 4 is not a drug song. Instead, he says, the title refers to the time of the morning that he was awake and writing the tune.
Artist: Black Sabbath
Title: Paranoid
Source: CD: Electric Seventies (originally released on LP: Paranoid)
Writer(s): Iommi/Osborne/Butler/Ward
Label: Warner Special Products/JCI
Year: 1971
Although it was the last track recorded for Black Sabbath's second album, Paranoid was actually the first song released from the sessions, appearing as a single about six months after the first LP hit the racks. The song, according to bassist Geezer Butler, was recorded as an afterthought, when the band realized they needed a three minute filler piece for the LP. Tony Iommi came up with the basic riff, which Butler quickly wrote lyrics for. Singer Ozzie Osbourne reportedly sang the lyrics directly from the handwritten lyric sheet. Paranoid turned out to be one of Black Sabbath's most popular tunes, and has shown up on several "best of" lists, including VH1's "40 Greatest Metal Songs", where it holds the # 1 spot. In Finland, the song has attained near-legendary status, and the phase "Soittakaa Paranoid!" can often be heard being yelled out from a member of the audience at a rock concert there, regardless of what band is actually on stage (much as "Free Bird" was heard at various concerts in the US throughout the 70s and 80s).
Artist: Deep Purple
Title: Speed King (US album version)
Source: CD: The Very Best Of Deep Purple (originally released in US on LP: Deep Purple In Rock
Writer(s): Blackmore/Gillan/Glover/Lord/Paice
Label: Warner Archives/Rhino
Year: 1970
One of the first new songs to be performed live by the second Deep Purple lineup was Speed King. Based on a riff by bassist Roger Glover, the UK album version was preceeded by an untitled instrumental lasting over a minute and a half that was left off the US version of the track, making its running length 4:20, an appropriate time for the band's US audience.
Artist: Cactus
Title: No Need To Worry
Source: CD: Cactus
Writer(s): Appice/Bogert/Day/McCarty
Label: Wounded Bird (original label: Atco)
Year: 1970
In September of 1969 guitarist Jeff Beck approached former Vanilla Fudge drummer Carmine Appice and bassist Tim Bogert about forming a new band. Those plans fell through, however, when Beck fractured his skull in a car accident that December. Bogert and Appice quickly recruited vocalist Rusty Day, formerly of the Amboy Dukes, and guitarist Jim McCarty from Mitch Ryder's Detroit Wheels to form Cactus, releasing their first LP in July of 1970. Most of the tunes on that debut album were written by the entire band, including No Need To Worry, which clocks in at six and a quarter minutes.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Moments
Source: French import 33 1/3 RPM 7" EP from the soundtrack of the film Percy
Writer(s): Ray Davies
Label: BMG/Sanctuary
Year: 1971
Although their record sales were a bit down in the early 1970s the Kinks were still able to stay gainfully employed by providing soundtracks for various British movies, including a comedy called Percy that came out in 1971. Songs from that film were released in the UK and Europe as an album with four of the better tunes also appearing on a 7" Extended Play record, a format that was not commonly used in the US at that time. Recently a French import version of that EP appeared as part of the annual Record Store Day promotion. Although the UK pressing of Percy was widely available in the US as an import throughout the 1970s, most of the songs from the film, including Moments (which was also released in the UK as a B side), never saw a US release.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: Truckin'
Source: Mono 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s): Hunter/Garcia/Lesh/Weir
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1971
The nearest thing the Grateful Dead had to a hit single before 1986 was Truckin', a autobiographical tune sung by Bob Weir from the American Beauty album. I actually have a video clip on DVD of the band doing the song live on some TV show. It is neither long nor strange.
No comments:
Post a Comment