https://exchange.prx.org/p/612973
Once again we take it one year at a time from the late 60s to the mid 70s, with tunes from familiar names like Jerry Garcia, Santana and Black Sabbath, and not-so familiar ones like Julie Driscoll and Rare Bird. And yes, we even have a short comedy bit from some kid named Chevy Chase about halfway though to liven things up.
Artist: Blind Faith
Title: Sea Of Joy
Source: CD: Blind Faith
Writer(s): Steve Winwood
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1969
At the time Blind Faith was formed there is no question that the biggest names in the band were guitarist Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, having just come off a successful three-year run with Cream. Yet the true architect of the Blind Faith sound was actually Steve Winwood, formerly of the Spencer Davis Group and, more recently, Traffic. Not only did Winwood handle most of the lead vocals for the group, he also wrote more songs on the band's only album than any other member. Among the Winwood tunes on that album is Sea Of Joy, which opens side two of the original LP.
Artist: Canned Heat
Title: Boogie Music
Source: British import CD: Living The Blues
Writer(s): L T Tatman III
Label: BGO (original label: Liberty)
Year: 1968
Canned Heat was formed in 1966 by a group of San Francisco Bay Area blues purists who by 1968 had relocated to Southern California's Laurel Canyon. Although a favorite on the rock scene, the band continued to remain true to the blues throughout its existence. The band's most popular single was Going Up the Country from the album Living the Blues. The B side of Going Up The Country was a tune called Boogie Music. The song is credited to L T Tatman III, which may be a pseudonym for the entire band, much as Nanker Phelge was for the Rolling Stones. Unusually, the single version of the song is actually longer than the album version heard here, thanks to a short coda made to sound like an archive recording from the 1920s.
Artist: Julie Driscoll
Title: Break Out
Source: British import CD: Spirit Of Joy (originally released in UK on LP: 1969)
Writer(s): Julie Driscoll
Label: Polydor
Year: 1971
Julie Driscoll (now known as Julie Tippetts), became a household name in the UK as a member of Brian Auger and the Trinity, having already been, with Rod Stewart and Long John Baldry, one of three vocalists in the band Steampacket. After leaving the Trinity she recorded her first solo album with the Keith Tippet band backing her up, in 1969 (although the album itself was not released until 1971). One of the highlights from that album (entitled simply 1969), was the song Break Out, which showcases not only her vocal talents, but her willingness to experiment as well.
Artist: Savoy Brown
Title: Master Hare
Source: LP: Raw Sienna
Writer(s): Kim Simmonds
Label: Parrot
Year: 1970
Savoy Brown's fifth LP, Raw Sienna, is often cited as the band's best album. It was also the last to feature vocalist Chris Youlden, who left the group for a less than stellar solo career following its release. Although Youlden wrote most of the songs on the album, bandleader Kim Simmonds provided the group with Master Hare, featuring Simmonds on lead guitar, "Lonesome" Dave Peverett on rhythm guitar, Tone Stevens on bass and Roger Earl on drums. Terry Noonan provided brass and string arrangements on the instrumental track.
Artist: Black Sabbath
Title: Sweet Leaf
Source: CD: Master Of Reality
Writer(s): Iommi/Osbourne/Butler/Ward
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1971
Composed pretty much entirely in the recording studio, Sweet Leaf is Black Sabbath's unapologetic ode to marijuana. The title was inspired by writing on the inside lid of a pack of Irish cigarettes that contained the words "it's the sweetest leaf that gives you the taste". The coughing at the beginning of the track was provided by Tony Iommi, who was caught by surprise at the potency of a joint handed to him by Ozzy Osbourne. And yes, the entire band was stoned when they recorded Sweet Leaf.
Artist: Jerry Garcia
Title: Sugaree
Source: Mono 45 RPM single (promo)
Writer: Garcia/Hunter/Kreutzmann
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1972
In 1972 Warner Brothers gave the individual members of the Grateful Dead the opportunity to record solo albums. Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and drummer Micket Hart took them up on the offer. Garcia's effort was unique in that he played virtually all the instruments on the album himself (except for the drum parts, which were played by Bill Kreutzmann). One of the best known songs from that album is Sugaree, which was soon added pretty much permanently to the Dead's concert repertoire.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: A Passion Play (Edit #10)
Source: Stereo 45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s): Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis
Year: 1973
My very first "radio" gig was at a closed-circuit station serving various locations at Holloman AFB, New Mexico. Even though most radio stations got lots of free promo copies of current songs, the Voice Of Holloman was pretty much ignored by the major record labels, with one notable exception: Warner Brothers (and it's associated labels such as Reprise and Chrysalis). Since the Voice Of Holloman was pretty middle of the road, they didn't play Jethro Tull, and I got to snag a copy of the second Tull single taken from A Passion Play. Unlike Edit #8, which got enough airplay to warrant inclusion in Jethro Tull's "M.U" The Best Of Jethro Tull collection, Edit #10 was pretty much dead in the water as soon as it was released. In fact, I have never actually seen a regular copy of the single. My original promo copy is long gone, but I did manage to find one from a reliable source in 2018, and a slightly cleaner one more recently. Enjoy!
Artist: National Lampoon
Title: Mission: Impeachable
Source: CD: Greatest Hits Of The National Lampoon (originally released on LP: The Missing White House Tapes)
Writer(s): Chevy Chase, possibly others as well
Label: Uproar (original label: Banana/Blue Thumb)
Year: 1974
The missing White House Tapes was originally released as a single on the Blue Thumb label in 1973. It was then expanded into a full-length album, featuring an array of young talent that would soon be associated with a new TV show called NBC Saturday Night (later retitled Saturday Night Live). Among those new talents was a young man named Chevy Chase, who provided several comedy bits for the album, including Mission: Impeachable.
Artist: Doobie Brothers
Title: Black Water
Source: CD: What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits
Writer(s): Patrick Simmons
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1974
Doobie Brothers co-founder Patrick Simmons' contribution had been for the most part overshadowed by those of Tom Johnston on the band's first three albums, but with the song Black Water from the LP What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits, that changed in a big way. The song, inspired by a visit to New Orleans, was released as the B side of the album's first single, Johnston's Another Park, Another Sunday. That single, however, stalled out in the #32 spot, and a subsequent single, Eyes Of Silver, did even worse, peaking at #52. This worried the record label enough to re-release yet another Johnston song, Nobody, which had appeared on the band's first album and had been released as a single in 1971. But then something unexpected happened. A radio station in Roanoke, Virginia began playing Black Water as an album track, prompting overwhelming listener response that led to other stations in Virginia airing the song as well. Five weeks after the Roanoke station began playing Black Water, Warner Brothers reissued the song, this time as an A side. It became the Doobie Brothers' first #1 hit and revived the band's career.
Artist: Sugarloaf
Title: Colorado Jones/I Got A Song (reprise)
Source: LP: Don't Call Us-We'll Call You (original album title: I Got A Song)
Writer(s): Phillips/Corbetta/Corso
Label: Claridge (original label: Brut)
Year: 1973/1975
Around the time Liberty Records got folded into United Artists records they dropped almost all of their artists, including the Denver-based Sugarloaf, who had released two albums for the label in 1970 and 1971. The band had actually split up before that due to internal problems, although vocalist/keyboardist Jerry Corbetta still had the rights to the Sugarloaf name, and in 1973 Corbetta began work on a solo album for Neil Bogart's Brut label called I Got A Song. While that album was being made, Corbetta patched up his differences with former band members Bob Webber (guitar) and Bob Raymond (bass), and I Got A Song ended up being released as the third Sugarloaf album, with new drummer Larry Ferris, in late1973. Brut Records folded the following year, however, and Corbetta and manager Frank Slay bought back rights to the album, hoping to shop it around to another label. Meanwhile, using studio musicians as backup, Corbetta recorded a song called Don't Call Us, We'll Call You at a Denver recording studio. The song was released in late 1974 on Slay's own Claridge label and ended up being a surprise hit, prompting the re-release of I Got A Song in spring of 1975 under the title Don't Call Us-We'll Call You, with the hit single replacing one of the original tracks. The band continued with various personnel changes until 1978, when Corbetta decided to go it alone. Corbetta eventually became a founding member of the Classic Rock All-Stars, which featured members of other 60s bands like Iron Butterfly, Rare Earth and Cannibal & the Headhunters. The All-Stars even did a few gigs using the name Sugarloaf between 1992 and 2005. In 2012 the 1971 Sugarloaf lineup reunited for their induction to the Colorado Music Hall of Fame (and a gig the next day at a Hall of Fame after-party), after which Corbetta retired from performing due to health issues.
Artist: Rare Bird
Title: Birdman-Part One (Title #1 Again)
Source: 45 RPM promo
Writer(s): Kaffinetti/Karos/Curtis/Kelly/Gould
Label: Polydor
Year: 1972
The appropriately named Rare Bird was never very popular in their native England. None of their albums charted there, and they only had one charted single that went to the #27 spot in 1969. They were much more successful in continental Europe, however. That same single, Sympathy, was an international hit, selling a million copies worldwide and hitting the #1 spot in both France and Italy. By the time the Rare Bird's third LP, Epic Forest, was released, the band had gone through several personnel changes, including the loss of the group's founder, keyboardist Graham Field. In the US the band got some airplay on college radio stations, but was virtually ignored by mainstream US listeners. I did manage to find a copy of Birdman-Part One (Title #1 Again), the single from the Epic Forest album in a thrift store many years ago. It's really quite listenable.
Artist: Santana
Title: No One To Depend On
Source: Mono 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Carabella/Escobida/Rolie
Label: Columbia
Year: 1971
Santana's third LP (which like their debut LP was called simply Santana), was the last by the band's original lineup. Among the better-known tracks on the LP was No One To Depend On, featuring a guitar solo by teen phenom Neal Schon (who would go on to co-found Journey). The version here is a rare mono promo pressing issued as a single in 1972. It is obviously not a true mono mix, but what is known as a "fold-down" mix, made by combining the two stereo channels into one. It sounds to me, though, like one channel (the one with Neil Schon's guitar) got shortchanged in the mix.
Artist: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Title: Everybody I Love You
Source: CD: déjà vu
Writer(s): Stills/Young
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1970
The last track on the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young album déjà vu is a Stephen Stills/Neil Young collaboration that sets the stage for the Stills/Young band a couple of years later. Stylistically it's pretty easy to figure out which part of Everybody I Love You was written by Stephen Stills and which part was written by Neil Young. What's interesting is how well the two parts actually fit together. As far as I know this is actually the first songwriting collaboration between the two, despite being bandmates in Buffalo Springfield since 1966 (and knowing each other even longer).
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