https://exchange.prx.org/p/598646
This time around we spend the first half of the show in the late '60s, with folks like Hendrix and Joplin popping up before jumping forward a few years, starting out second set with Robin Trower and going from there. We drop back to 1969 to finish out with a classic Santana track.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Nothing Is Easy
Source: CD: Stand Up
Writer(s): Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol (original US label: Reprise)
Year: 1969
Not long after the release of the first Jethro Tull album, guitarist Mick Abrahams, who was a blues enthusiast, left the group due to musical differences with lead vocalist/flautist Ian Anderson, who favored a more eclectic approach to songwriting. Abrahams's replacement was Martin Barre, who remains a member of the group to this day. One of the first songs recorded with Barre is Nothing Is Easy, a blues rocker that opens side two of the band's second LP, Stand Up. More than any other track on Stand Up, Nothing Is Easy sounds like it could have been an outtake from This Was, the band's debut LP.
Artist: Moody Blues
Title: Legend Of A Mind
Source: CD: In Search Of The Lost Chord
Writer(s): Thomas/Lodge
Label: Deram
Year: 1968
The Moody Blues started off as a fairly typical British beat band, scoring one major international hit, Go Now, in 1965, as well as several minor British hit singles. By 1967 lead vocalist Denny Laine was no longer with the group (he would later surface as a member of Paul McCartney's Wings), and the remaining members were not entirely sure of where to go next. At around that time their record label, Deram, was looking to make a rock version of a well-known classical piece (The Nine Planets), and the Moody Blues were tapped for the project. Somewhere along the way, however, the group decided to instead write their own music for rock band and symphony orchestra, and Days Of Future Passed was the result. The album, describing a somewhat typical day in the life of a somewhat typical Britisher, was successful enough to revitalize the band's career, and a follow-up LP, In Search Of The Lost Chord, was released in 1968. Instead of a full orchestra, however, the band members themselves provided all the instrumentation on the new album, using a relatively new keyboard instrument called the mellotron (a complicated contraption that utilized tape loops) to simulate orchestral sounds. Like its predecessor, In Search Of The Lost Chord was a concept album, this time dealing with the universal search for the meaning of life through music. One of the standout tracks on the album is Legend Of A Mind, with its signature lines: "Timothy Leary's dead. No, no, he's outside looking in." Although never released as a single, the track got a fair amount of airplay on college and progressive FM radio stations, and has long been considered a cult hit.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: The Wind Cries Mary
Source: CD: Live At Monterey
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Experience Hendrix/UMe
Year: 1967
The art of recording live rock bands was still in its infancy when the Jimi Hendrix Experience made their US debut at the Monterey International Pop Festival in June of 1967. For that matter, most live performances were marred by equipment problems, especially when it came to the public address (PA) system, which was the only way to make vocals heard over increasingly loud instruments. Monterey, however, raised the bar for both its sound system and the quality of the recordings made at the festival. In some cases, however, the improved sound system only made other equipment problems more noticable. One such problem was the annoying crackling sound coming from Jimi Hendrix's speakers during the Experience's performance of The Wind Cries Mary. Although it sounds at first like it might be a blown speaker, my own experience with Marshall amplifiers tells me that the problem was with Hendrix's amp, which was being pushed to its limits throughout the entire performance.
Artist: Big Brother And The Holding Company
Title: Ball And Chain
Source: European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Cheap Thrills)
Writer: Willie Mae Thornton
Label: Sony Music (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1968
In June of 1967 Big Brother And The Holding Company, fronted by Janis Joplin, electrified the crowd at the Monterey International Pop Festival with their rendition of Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton's Ball And Chain. Over the years Joplin, both with and without Big Brother, continued to perform the song. One of the finest performances of Ball And Chain was recorded live at the Fillmore in 1968 and included on the band's major label debut, Cheap Thrills. In retrospect the recording marks the peak of both Big Brother and of Joplin, who went their separate ways after the album was released.
Artist: Grand Funk Railroad
Title: Inside Looking Out
Source: CD: Grand Funk
Writer(s): Lomax/Lomax/Burdon/Chandler
Label: Capitol
Year: 1969
Grand Funk Railroad never had a whole lot of success in the UK. In fact, their only charted single was a cover of the Animals' 1966 hit Inside Looking Out. The song's running time of nine and a half minutes made it necessary for the single, which was also released in Ireland, the Netherlands and Japan, to be pressed at 33 1/3 RPM rather than the usual 45 RPM. In the rest of the world, however, you had to buy the 1969 album Grand Funk to hear the song, since most radio stations wouldn't touch it. The album itself was quite popular, especially among young men with 8-track tape players in their cars.
Artist: Robin Trower
Title: Bridge Of Sighs/In This Place
Source: CD: Bridge Of Sighs
Writer(s): Robin Trower
Label: Chrysalis
Year: 1974
One of the most celebrated guitar albums of all time, Bridge Of Sighs was Robin Trower's second solo LP following his departure from Procol Harum. Released in 1974, the LP spent 31 weeks on the Billboard album charts, peaking at #7. Bridge of Sighs has served as a template for later guitar-oriented albums, especially those of Warren Haines and Gov't Mule. The title track of the album, which continues into the next song, In This Place, was the most played track on Rockin' in the Days of Confusion for the year 2017, incidentally.
Artist: Sailcat
Title: Baby Ruth
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): John Wyker
Label: Elektra
Year: 1972
Sailcat was a studio band formed by John D. Wyker and Court Pickett that included several prominent members of the Muscle Shoals music scene. Wyker had been a guitarist and vocalist in the Rubber Band (with John Townsend), while Pickett was the bassist/vocalist for Sundown, a band based in Macon, Georgia. The duo cut a demo of Motorcyle Mama that was originally discarded by the band, but eventually led to a contract with Elektra Records. The resulting album, also called Motorcycle Mama, was a concept album with a biker theme that included songs like Baby Ruth (sung by Wyker), which was also released as band's second and final single.
Artist: Don Preston
Title: What A Friend I Have In Georgia
Source: 45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s): Don Preston
Label: Shelter
Year: 1974
So who is Don Preston? Glad you asked. There are actually two Don Prestons on the music scene. The older one, born in 1932, is a keyboardist, and was a co-founder of Frank Zappa's Mothers Of Invention, but that's not the one we're talking about here. This Don Preston, sometimes knowns as the Gentle Giant, plays guitar, and is best known as a member of Leon Russell's Shelter People, playing on several notable live albums, including Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs And Englishmen and George Harrison's Concert For Bangla Desh. In 1974 he recorded an album called Been Here All The Time for Russell's Shelter Records, releasing What A Friend I Have In Georgia as a single.
Artist: Stealer's Wheel
Title: Stuck In The Middle With You
Source: 45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s): Egan/Rafferty
Label: A&M
Year: 1973
Stealer's Wheel was formed in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland by former schoolmates Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty in 1972. By the time their first album was released, however, Rafferty had already left the group for a solo career. The single Stuck In The Middle With You was such as success, however, that Rafferty was persuaded to rejoin the group. They were never able to duplicate the success of that first single, however, and by 1975 Stealer's Wheel had ceased to exist. Rafferty, once again a solo artist, would have a huge hit in 1978 with the song Baker Street.
Artist: Santana
Title: Evil Ways
Source: CD: Santana
Writer(s): Clarence Henry
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1969
Evil Ways was originally released in 1968 by jazz percussionist Willie Bobo on an album of the same name. When Carlos Santana took his new band into the studio to record their first LP, they made the song their own, taking it into the top 10 in 1969.
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