https://exchange.prx.org/p/591680
This week, with only a couple of exceptions, we focus on album tracks that may or may not have been heard on your local FM rock station in the early 1970s. These include tunes from popular artists like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin as well lesser-known talents like Roy Buchanan and Rory Gallagher.
rtist: O'Jays
Title: Back Stabbers
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Huff/McFadden/Whitehead
Label: Philadelphia International
Year: 1972
The two hotspots of soul music in the late 60s were Detroit, Michigan (Motown Records) and Memphis, Tennessee (Stax Records). By the early 70s, however, Memphis was eclipsed by Philadelphia, thanks to Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, founders of and in-house producers for Philadelphia International Records. One of the first major hits for the label was Back Stabbers by the O'Jays, a Cleveland, Ohio vocal group that had been recording with only moderate success since the early 60s. Back Stabbers hit the top spot on the R&B charts in 1972 and crossed over to the top 40 as well, peaking at #3.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Third Stone From The Sun
Source: LP: Are You Experienced?
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
Jimi Hendrix once stated that he was far more comfortable as a guitarist than as a vocalist, at least in the early days of the Experience. In that case, he was certainly in his element for this classic instrumental from the Are You Experienced album. Many of the sounds heard on 3rd Stone From The Sun were made by superimposing a slowed down recording of the following conversation between Hendrix and producer Chas Chandler over the music:
Hendrix : Star fleet to scout ship, please give your position. Over.
Chandler : I am in orbit around the third planet of star known as Sun. Over.
Hendrix : May this be Earth? Over.
Chandler : Positive. It is known to have some form of intelligent species. Over.
Hendrix : I think we should take a look (Jimi then makes vocal spaceship noises).
One of the more notable spoken lines that plays at normal speed on the recording, "To you I shall put an end, then you'll never hear surf music again", was Hendrix's reaction to the news that famed surf guitarist Dick Dale had been diagnosed with a possible terminal case of colon cancer and was meant to encourage his friend's recovery (apparently it worked, as Dick Dale lasted another 52 years, passing away at the age of 81). As heard on the 2007 album The Jimi Hendrix Experience: 1966–1967, Hendrix's original overdub included two more sentences "That sounds like a lie to me. Come on, man; let's go home." that were not used on the final recording. The train sequence at the end of the track, incidentally, was done entirely on guitar.
Artist: Cream
Title: Deserted Cities Of The Heart
Source: CD: Wheels Of Fire
Writer(s): Bruce/Brown
Label: Polydor (original US label: Atco)
Year: 1968
The most psychedelic of Cream's songs were penned by Jack Bruce and his songwriting partner Pete Brown. One of the best of these was chosen to close out the last studio side of the last Cream album released while the band was still in existence. Deserted Cities Of The Heart is a fitting epitaph to an unforgettable band.
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: Janis Joplin
Title: Half Moon
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): John & Johanna Hall
Label: Columbia
Year: 1971
Half Moon was the B side of Janis Joplin's biggest-selling single, Me And Bobby McGee. As such, it is one of Joplin's best known songs from the Pearl album. The song itself was written (with his wife Johanna) by John Hall, who later went on to form his own band, Orleans, which scored major hits in the late 1970s with Dance With Me and Still The One, both of which were Hall compositions. In 1977 Hall left Orleans to pursue a solo career, becoming active in the anti-nuclear movement as well, co-founding Musicians United for Safe Energy with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Graham Nash. While living in Saugerties, NY, he co-founded two citizens' groups, which led to his election to the Saugerties Board of Education. Hall continued to write songs, both for himself and other artists, while simultaneously pursuing a political career that led to him serving two terms in the US House of Representatives.
Artist: Captain Beyond
Title: Raging River Of Fear
Source: LP: Captain Beyond
Writer(s): Caldwell/Evans
Label: Capricorn
Year: 1972
No band has ever impressed me during a live performance more than Captain Beyond did in 1972. Some friends and I had made the trip from Alamogordo to El Paso to catch a concert. Back in those days a typical rock concert featured three bands: one headliner, a middle band that had an album or two under their belt but had not yet achieved headliner status, and an opening act that was generally either a new band promoting their debut LP or a popular local band. In this particular case the headliner was Alice Cooper, whose School's Out tour was obviously enough of a draw to get the bunch of us to drive the 85 miles of two-lane blacktop across the Texas-New Mexico line to come see them. In fact, we didn't even know who else was going to be playing that night. As it turned out the opening act, Captain Beyond (whom none of us had ever heard of) more than held their own against Cooper and totally blew the middle act (Jo Jo Gunne) off the stage. The thing I was most impressed by was how big of a sound Captain Beyond had on songs like Raging River Of Fear, considering they had only one guitar, along with bass, drums and vocals. Later that week I discovered the second most impressive thing about Captain Beyond: their concert performance sounded almost exactly like their album (except for fadeout endings on some songs), which I bought as soon as I found a copy on the racks. Once I had a copy of the album I realized that I was already familiar with the work of some of the band members, including Lee Dorman and Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt (both from Iron Butterfly) and Rod Evans (the original Deep Purple vocalist). Drummer Bobby Caldwell's name was unfamiliar, but he certainly left an impression with his power and precision, a combination that fit the band quite well.
Artist: Roy Buchanon
Title: Roy's Bluz
Source: CD: The Best Of Roy Buchanon (originally released on LP: That's What I Am Here For)
Writer(s): Roy Buchanon
Label: Polydor
Year: 1973
Some musicians are highly respected among their peers, but are relatively unknown by the public at large. A perfect example of this is "the guitarist's guitarist" Roy Buchanon. Born in 1939 in Ozark, Alabama and raised in California's San Joaquin Valley, Buchanon was discovered by Dale Hawkins (Suzie Q), while he was still in his teens. Three years later, in 1961, Buchanon joined up with Hawkins' cousin Ronnie "The Hawk" Hawkins, working with a young Robbie Robertson, who later cited Buchanon as one of his biggest influences. Buchanon soon left the Hawks to get married and live in the Washington, DC area for the remainder of the 1960s, playing various local clubs. By the early 70s his fame had spread among the musicians' crowd, with Eric Clapton calling him the best he'd ever heard. In 1972 Buchanon signed with Polydor Records, releasing five albums on the label from 1972-75. Among the best tracks he recorded during this time was Roy's Bluz, using his trademark 1953 Fender Telecaster on a song he composed himself.
Artist: Credibility Gap
Title: 16 Golden Greats
Source: LP: A Great Gift Idea
Writer(s): Shearer/Lander/Beebe/McKean
Label: Sierra Briar (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1974
Originally formed by news staff at the popular Los Angeles radio station KRLA in 1968 to present a satirical take on the news, by the mid 1970s the Credibility Gap consisted of Harry Shearer, David Lander and Michael McKean, along with founding member Richard Beebe, by then the only remaining newsman in the group. They performed regularly on Pasadena radio station KPPC until that station sacked its entire staff as part of a format change, at which point they began performing in clubs and concert halls. Their peak of popularity came with the album A Great Gift Idea. Released in 1974, the album combined musical parodies with short comedy bits such as 16 Golden Greats, which featured all four members doing impressions of famous comedians. With the exception of Beebe, who opted to remain a journalist, the members of the Credibility Gap went on to have successful careers in television and film, with McKean and Lander becoming well known as Lenny and Squiggy on the show Laverne And Shirley and Shearer and McKean making the big time as members of Spinal Tap.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Can You Hear The Music
Source: LP: Goat's Head Soup
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Rolling Stones
Year: 1973
By 1973 the Rolling Stones had gone from being a simple rock band to being international celebrities, and subtle differences were starting to show in their music. The album Goat's Head Soup, is often considered the end of the Stones' "golden age". The album was recorded in Jamaica, because, as Keith Richards put it: "Jamaica was one of the few places that would let us all in! " While some of the songs on Goat's Head Soup, particularly the single Angie that preceeded the album's release, are genuine classics, other tunes, such as Can You Hear The Music, seem self-indulgent by comparison.
Artist: Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Title: Abaddin's Bolero
Source: CD: Trilogy
Writer(s): Keith Emerson
Label: Atlantic (original label: Cotillion)
Year: 1972
The first thing that comes to mind when I hear Abaddin's Bolero from Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Trilogy album is how much it reminds me of the theme song from the TV series Dragnet. Apparently reruns of the original 1950s series ran on British independent stations throughout the 1960s, so it's likely Keith Emerson had at least heard the tune in his younger years.
Artist: Rory Gallagher
Title: Sinner Boy
Source: Japanese import LP: Rory Gallagher
Writer(s): Rory Gallagher
Label: Polydor (original US label: Atco)
Year: 1971
After disbanding the group Taste following a final performance on Dec. 31, 1970, Irish guitarist Rory Gallagher immediately set out to find a new backup band. Among the various musicians Gallagher jammed with over the next month were former Jimi Hendrix Experience members Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, but he ultimately went with a pair of Belfast musicians, bassist Gerry McAvoy and drummer Wilgar Campbell, to support him on his debut LP. All of the songs on the album, including concert favorite Sinner Boy, were written and sung by Gallagher.
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Title: Hats Off To (Roy) Harper
Source: CD: Led Zeppelin III
Writer(s): Trad., arr. Charles Obscure
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1970
The final track on Led Zeppelin's third album at first sounds like a throwaway track featuring Jimmy Page noodling slide guitar and Robert Plant throwing out blues cliches. This impression is reinforced by the fact that the writing credits on the label read "Traditional, arr. Charles Obscure". The reality, though, is that Hats Off To (Roy) Harper is based on a 1937 recording of Shake 'Em On Down by delta bluesman Bukka White. The title of the Led Zeppelin version is a tribute to the band's friend Roy Harper, who would come to international prominence in 1975 as the guest lead vocalist on Pink Floyd's Have A Cigar, from their Wish You Were Here album.
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