https://exchange.prx.org/p/583899
This week we have about 45 minutes of free-form rock from the early 1970s. First, though, a set of tunes that have never been played on Rockin' in the Days of Confusion before.
Artist: Rod Stewart
Title: Every Picture Tells A Story
Source: LP: Every Picture Tells A Story
Writer(s): Stewart/Wood
Label: Mercury
Year: 1971
I've long held the opinion that Rod Stewart was only as good as his Faces bandmates, and when he abandoned them in 1975 his music became, to me, unlistenable. Luckily, Every Picture Tells A Story was long before that, and the title track was even co-written by one of the aforementioned Faces bandmates, Ronnie Wood. Whatever happened to that guy, anyway? :)
Artist: The Sweet
Title: Man From Mecca
Source: Mono 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Connoly/Scott/Priest/Tucker
Label: Bell
Year: 1972
When I first heard the Sweet I dismissed them as bubble gum music a few years after its time. This was based on two things. One, they were on the Bell label, home of the Partridge Family. The other can be summed up in two words: Little Willy. I truly hated that song. So imagine my surprise years later when I discover that the Sweet was actually a halfway decent hard rock band, as can be heard on Man From Mecca, the B side of the aforementioned Little Willy.
Artist: Johnny Winter
Title: Can't You Feel It
Source: LP: Still Alive And Well
Writer(s): Dan Hartman
Label: Columbia
Year: 1973
Following the release of Second Winter in 1969, keyboardist Edgar Winter left his brother Johnny's band to form Edgar Winter's White Trash. This led Johnny Winter to dismiss bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer "Uncle" John Turner and instead begin working with Rick Derringer's band, the McCoys, ultimately taking the name Johnny Winter And for the group. Unfortunately, he also started doing heroin around that time, and by early 1971 he had virtually disappeared from the music scene. Two years later, after getting himself clean, he recorded his comeback album, Still Alive And Well, which incorporated elements of his original blues style and the hard rock he had embraced with Johnny Winter And. An example of the latter is Can't You Feel It, written by guitarist Dan Hartman, a member of Edgar Winter's White Trash.
Artist: Mountain
Title: Roll Over Beethoven
Source: LP: The Best Of Mountain (originally released on LP: Flowers Of Evil and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Chuck Berry
Label: Windfall/Columbia
Year: 1971
Flowers Of Evil was a combined studio/live album released in 1971, with studio tracks on side one and excerpts from a live concert at New York's Fillmore East auditorium on side two. Most of the second side is a medley of tunes, including a cover of Chuck Berry's Roll Over Beethoven that was also issued as a single in early 1972. Needless to say, it rocks out considerably harder than Berry's 1956 original.
Artist: National Lampoon
Title: Mr. Roberts
Source: CD: Greatest Hits Of The National Lampoon (originally released on LP: That's Not Funny, That's Sick)
Writer(s): Murray/Guest
Label: Uproar (original label: Label 21)
Year: 1977
There are actually two Mr. Roberts tracks on the 1977 National Lampoon LP That's Not Funny, That's Sick. The more famous one depicts the children's show host (a parody of Mister Rogers) being accosted by the father of one of the neighborhood kids for spending too much time alone with his son. For my money, though, the far funnier one involves Mr. Roberts (voiced by Christopher Guest) interviewing a jazz bassist (voiced by Billy Murray), culminating in an invitation to take a trip to the "magic kingdom". Murray and Guest wrote the piece, which is included on the Greatest Hits Of The National Lampoon CD.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Reasons For Waiting
Source: CD: Stand Up
Writer: Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol (original US label: Reprise)
Year: 1969
Strictly speaking, Reasons For Waiting is not a Jethro Tull piece. Rather, it is an Ian Anderson solo work with orchestration. This was quite a departure from the first Tull album, which was (like most debut albums) made up of songs already in the group's live performance repertoire (the exception being Mick Abrahams's Move On Along, which in addition to having Abrahams on lead vocals, added a horn section).
Artist: Black Sabbath
Title: Electric Funeral
Source: CD: Paranoid
Writer(s): Iommi/Osborne/Butler/Ward
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1970
When Black Sabbath first appeared on vinyl they were perceived as the next step in the evolution of rock, building on the acid rock of the late sixties and laying the groundwork for what would become heavy metal. Electric Funeral, from the band's second album, Paranoid, shows that evolution in progress.
Artist: Mott The Hoople
Title: All The Young Dudes
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s): David Bowie
Label: Rock 'N Mania (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1972
After three years and four albums for Island Records (released on Atlantic in the US), Mott The Hoople was on the verge of breaking up when David Bowie gave them the song All The Young Dudes to record. The single, released in 1972, turned Mott overnight from nearly extinct also-rans to leaders of the glam-rock movement. Oddly enough, Bowie later claimed that the song was not intended to be an anthem at all; rather it was a precursor to his next album, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust, and that the "news" that the young dudes were proclaiming was the apocalyptic fact that Earth had five years left, the same message that opens Ziggy Stardust.
Artist: Mothers
Title: Montana
Source: CD: Over-Nite Sensation
Writer(s): Frank Zappa
Label: Zappa (original label: Discreet)
Year: 1973
Montana is quite possibly the most recognizable song Frank Zappa ever wrote. The track first appeared on the Mothers album Over-Nite Sensation and quickly became a concert staple. On the original album version Zappa's guitar solo is followed by a series of vocal gymnastics performed by none other than Tina Turner and the Ikettes, who were recording with Turner's husband Ike in an adjacent studio. According to Zappa it took the singers two days to master the complex melody and timing of the section. Reportedly Tina was so pleased with the result that she invited her husband into the control room to hear the finished section, only to have Ike say "What is this shit?" and walk back out.
Artist: Crosby, Stills & Nash
Title: Long Time Gone
Source: LP: Crosby, Stills & Nash
Writer(s): David Crosby
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1969
There is no doubt that the group that benefited the most from performing at Woodstock was Crosby, Stills & Nash. The trio had just released their first LP, and, as they themselves admitted onstage, it was only their second time playing in front of people. Their performance was a huge success, turning them into superstars virtually overnight. The group played both acoustic and electric sets, an approach that has been adopted by many other performers over the years as well. Following their appearance at the festival, sales of their first LP rocketed, eventually topping four million copies sold. Among the many memorable tunes on the album is Long Time Gone, David Crosby's response to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. The song got favorable reviews from the rock press, as well as considerable airplay on progressive rock radio stations, and was used for the opening credits of the Woodstock movie.
Artist: Robin Trower
Title: About To Begin
Source: LP: Bridge Of Sighs
Writer(s): Robin Trower
Label: Chrysalis
Year: 1974
Many of the artists featured on FM rock radio in the 1970s had already established themselves in the latter part of the previous decade, getting airplay on underground stations as well as the occasional top 40 hit. Others were newcomers that would go on to become stars in the 1980s. Then there are those few who seem to be exclusively associated with the 1970s. Among this group is Robin Trower, former guitarist of the art-rock oriented Procol Harum. Trower seldom got a chance to shine in the keyboard-dominated Harum, however, and left the group in 1972 to form his own band, Jude. Jude did not last long enough to record an album, but it did provide Trower with the core of his new trio, consisting of Trower himself on guitar, James Dewar on bass and vocals and Reg Isidore on drums. Trower's first solo album, Twice Removed From Yesterday, was fairly well-received by the rock press, but it actually was only setting the stage for what is now considered one of the greatest rock guitar albums ever recorded: 1974's Bridge Of Sighs. Even the lesser-known tracks like About To Begin got at least some airplay, and deservedly so.
Artist: Billy Preston
Title: That's The Way God Planned It
Source: LP: The Concert For Bangla Desh
Writer(s): Billy Preston
Label: Apple
Year: 1971
One of the highlights of the 1971 Concert For Bangla Desh album was Billy Preston's rendition of his 1969 hit single That's The Way God Planned It. Preston was already a household name, having received label credit for his contributions to the Beatles' Get Back/Don't Let Me Down single and his participation in the famous "rooftop concert". The evening performance, backed up by an all-star lineup that included George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Leon Russell, culminated in Preston getting up from his keyboard and dancing across the stage. It was this performance that was featured in the concert film and soundtrack album.
Artist: Procol Harum
Title: A Salty Dog
Source: LP: A Salty Dog
Writer(s): Brooker/Reid
Label: A&M
Year: 1969
A Salty Dog has been cited by lyricist Keith Reid as one of his personal favorite Procol Harum songs. The tune originally appeared as the title track of the band's third LP and was also released as the lead single from the album. Although it did not perform well on the charts, A Salty Dog got positive reviews and remained part of the band's live repertoire for several years, eventually being included on their 1972 live album with the Edmundton Symphony Orchestra and released as a single from that album. Disc Jockeys, however, preferred the high energy B side, Conquistador, and it was that song that became Procol Harum's only song to make the US top 40 in the 1970s, peaking at #16. Incidentally, the original studio version of A Salty Dog does not include any contributions from the band's guitarist, Robin Trower, which may have been a contributing factor to his leaving the group two years later.
Artist: Doors
Title: The Mosquito
Source: Mono 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Krieger/Densmore/Manzarek
Label: Elektra
Year: 1972
Following the death of Jim Morrison, the remaining members of the Doors attempted to carry on as a three-piece group, but met with relatively little success. One of their best known songs is The Mosquito, but not as a Doors recording. Not long after the song's initial release as a single (and LP track on the album Full Circle), the song was translated into French by Pierre Delanoe, whose Le Moustique went into the top 10 in at least two European countries, and was also released in Canada. Sadly, the line "Just let me eat my burrito" was lost in translation. At least Robby Krieger, John Densmore and Ray Manzarek got some royalties out of it.
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