https://exchange.prx.org/p/590857
It's another week of free-form rock from the early '70s, with tracks ranging from the well-known to the obscure. Oddly enough there are very few in-betweeners this time around. And just for the fun of it our shortest track of the week (a 23 second long bit from Firesign Theatre) gets the longest writeup below.
Artist: Alice Cooper
Title: Eighteen
Source: CD: Electric Seventies (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Love It To Death
Writer(s): Cooper/Bruce/Buxton/Dunaway/Smith
Label: JCI/Warner Special Products (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1970
Alice Cooper's ultimate teenage anthem Eighteen was kind of a do or die release for the group, who had up to that point been a part of Frank Zappa's Straight Records' stable of oddball artists with little or no commercial potential. In 1970, however, Zappa sold Straight to Warner Brothers, who agreed to release Eighteen that same year, with the stipulation that if the record sold well the group could record an album for the label. The single did indeed do well, propelling Alice Cooper to stardom and allowing them to record Love It To Death, the first in a series of best-selling albums for the band. The song came at a perfect time, as most states were in the process of raising the drinking age to 21 but had not yet lowered the voting age to 18. Furthermore, the military draft was still in effect in 1970, making many 18-year-olds quite nervous, especially those with low lottery numbers.
Artist: Guess Who
Title: No Time
Source: CD: American Woman
Writer(s): Bachman/Cummings
Label: Buddha/BMG (original label: RCA Victor)
Year: 1970
The Guess Who hit their creative and commercial peak with their 1970 album American Woman. The first of three hit singles from the album was No Time, which was already climbing the charts when the LP was released. After American Woman the band's two main songwriters, guitarist Randy Bachman and vocalist Burton Cummings, would move in increasingly divergent directions, with Bachman eventually leaving the band to form the hard-rocking Bachman-Turner Overdrive, while Cummings continued to helm an increasingly light pop flavored Guess Who.
Artist: Allman Brothers Band
Title: Ain't Wastin' Time No More
Source: CD: Eat A Peach
Writer(s): Gregg Allman
Label: Mercury (original label: Capricorn)
Year: 1972
Following the death of guitarist Duane Allman in a motorcycle crash in October of 1971, the Allman Brothers Band seriously considered calling it quits. Ultimately, however, they decided that the way to honor the legacy of their fallen bandleader was to complete the new album they had already started recording. The new album's opening tune, Ain't Wastin' Time No More, is one of three new studio tracks recorded without Duane Allman. The Gregg Allman-penned tune features Dickie Betts doing a credible job of emulating Duane's slide guitar style. Betts would go on to assume a leadership role with the band, leaving his stamp on future albums with songs such as Ramblin' Man and Jessica.
Artist: Wishbone Ash
Title: Sometime World
Source: LP: Argus
Writer(s): Turner/Turner/Upton/Powell
Label: Decca
Year: 1972
Guitarist Andy Powell shines on Sometime World from the third Wishbone Ash album, Argus. The song, about missed opportunities and second chances, begins as a quiet, reflective piece, but about halfway through transforms itself into a high-energy rocker. Although the song was seldom performed live, Powell has since stated that Sometime World is his favorite track on Argus.
Artist: Grand Funk Railroad
Title: Mark Says Alright
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Farner/Brewer/Schacher
Label: Capitol
Year: 1970
Grand Funk Railroad's Live Album, released in 1970, continued the group's pattern of getting universally negative reviews from the rock press while selling millions of copies to the band's fans. Unlike most live albums, the double LP contained no overdubs or remixes, reflecting the band's desire to present an accurate, if flawed, representation of how the band actually sounded in concert. Although most of the songs on the Live Album are also available as studio tracks on their first three albums, one track, the five-minute long instrumental piece called Mark Says Alright, was nearly exclusive to the Live Album. I say "nearly" because the track was also issued as the B side of the album's first single, Heartbreaker. Oh, and yes, somewhere in there guitarist Mark Farner does indeed say "alright".
Artist: Firesign Theatre
Title: Learning Turkish
Source: LP: Waiting For The Electrician or Someone Like Him
Writer(s): Proctor/Bergman/Austin/Ossman
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
The Firesign Theatre was formed in Los Angeles in 1966 by late-night radio talk show host Peter Bergman, along with his producers, Phil Austin and David Ossman, and his old college friend Philip Proctor. Bergman was the host of a show called Radio Free Oz on KPFK FM that, according to Austin, "featured everybody who was anybody in the artistic world who passed through LA." Bergman's show guests included such luminaries as Andy Warhol and the members of Buffalo Springfield, among others. On slow nights, Bergman and his cohorts, whom he christened the Oz Firesign Theatre (soon dropping the "Oz" after Disney and M-G-M threatened lawsuits), would pretend to be various characters without letting the audience know it was all a put-on. The members would create their characters individually without clueing in the other members, creating an atmosphere of improvisation as they played those characters off each other. By 1967 the Firesign Theatre was a regular feature on Radio Free Oz, performing half-hour skits that they had written themselves. The shows included weekly live appearances at a club called the Magic Mushroom on Sunday nights, as well as an appearance at L.A.'s first love-in at Elysian Park, that was broadcast on Bergman's show. This led to Radio Free Oz moving from KPFK to AM powerhouse KRLA, one of the city's most popular stations, which in turn led to their discovery by Gary Usher, who was a staff producer at Columbia Records. Usher signed the Firesign Theatre to a five-year contract with Columbia, and co-produced their first LP, Waiting For The Electrician or Someone Like Him. The short Learning Turkish, from that first LP, is typical of the Firesign brand of humor. The Firesign Theatre would go on to become one of the most popular acts in the history of comedy on vinyl, creating such memorable characters as noir detective Nick Danger and film star Porgy Tirebiter.
Artist: Patti Smith
Title: Hey Joe
Source: Mono 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Billy Roberts (spoken intro written by Patti Smith)
Label: Mer
Year: 1974
Before signing with Arista Records in 1975, the Patti Smith group recorded a 1974 single for the independent Mer label. Financed by art collector/curator Sam Wagstaff, the record featured Smith's version of Hey Joe, with a spoken introduction concerning Patty Hearst, who had been kidnapped by, and subsequently became a member of, a radical group calling itself the Symbionese Liberation Army that year.
Artist: Joe Cocker
Title: Lawdy Miss Clawdy/She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
Source: LP: Joe Cocker!
Writer(s): Price/Lennon/McCartney
Label: A&M
Year: 1969
Joe Cocker had been a somewhat obscure British interpreter of other people's songs when he and his group, the Grease Band, performed at Woodstock in August of 1969. Three months later he released his second LP, Joe Cocker! Like his first LP, the album was made up mostly of cover tunes redone in Cocker's own unique style; in fact the album only contained one original Cocker composition. Among those covers was Cocker's version of She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, a song that had been released earlier the same year as part of the Beatles' Abbey Road medley, but that Cocker would turn into a top 40 hit single. On the album, the song is preceeded by Cocker's interpretation of Lawdy Miss Clawdy, Lloyd Price's first R&B hit from 1952. The two songs are edited together tightly enough on the album to make a mini-medley of their own.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Cross-Eyed Mary
Source: CD: Aqualung
Writer: Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis
Year: 1971
The fortunes of Jethro Tull improved drastically with the release of the Aqualung album in 1971. The group had done well in their native UK but were still considered a second-tier band in the US. Aqualung, however, propelled the group to star status, with several tracks, such as Cross-Eyed Mary, getting heavy airplay on FM rock radio.
Artist: Headstones
Title: Carry Me On
Source: LP: Brown Acid: The Fourth Trip
Writer(s): David, Barry & Bruce Flynn
Label: Ridingeasy
Year: 1974
There seems to be a little confusion about whether this band was called Headstone (singular) of the Headstones (plural). The only LP put out by this central Indiana band was simply called Headstone, but their two singles (on a different label) credited the Headstones. Name aside, the band was made up of three brothers, David (drums, vocals), Bruce (guitar) and Barry (bass, vocals) Flynn, along with keyboardist Tom Applegate. Although their music might have sounded slightly dated (it has been described as sounding more like 1971 than 1974), they are now considered a classic example of a post-garage era locally successful hard rock band.
Artist: Genesis
Title: Watcher Of The Skies
Source: LP: Foxtrot
Writer(s): Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label: Charisma
Year: 1972
The opening song for most of Genesis's live performances throughout the mid-1970s was also the opening track of their 1972 album Foxtrot. Watcher Of The Skies was inspired by the works of science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke (Childhood's End) and legendary comic book writer Stan Lee (the Tales Of The Watcher series), although the title itself reportedly was taken from an 1817 poem by John Keats. The two alternating chords at the beginning of the piece were actually the result of the limitations of a Mellotron MKII (a keyboard instrument that utilized tape loops of string orchestras) that keyboardist Tony Banks had just bought from King Crimson. According to Banks "There were these two chords that sounded really good on that instrument. There are some chords you can't play on that instrument because they'd be so out of tune. These chords created an incredible atmosphere. That's why it's just an incredible intro number. It never sounded so good on the later Mellotron."
Artist: Doobie Brothers
Title: Another Park, Another Sunday
Source: CD: What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits
Writer(s): Ton Johnston
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1973
One of the most underrated songs in the Doobie Brothers catalog, Another Park Another Sunday was the first single released from the band's fourth LP, What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits, in late 1973. Although the tune made the top 40 charts, it was eventually eclipsed by its B side, Black Water, which went all the way to the top when it was re-released as a single the following year.
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