https://exchange.prx.org/p/620257
This time around we start with a set of tunes from 1969 before getting into slightly more recent musical territory, finishing out the hour with our first look at the 1972 edition of the band Zephyr.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: You Can't Always Get What You Want
Source: CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1969
When the Rolling Stones called for singers to back them up on their recording of You Can't Always Get What You Want, they expected maybe 30 to show up. Instead they got twice that many, and ended up using them all on the record. The song, which also features Al Kooper on organ, was orginally released as the B side of Honky Tonk Women in 1969. In the mid-1970s, after the Stones had established their own record label, Allen Klein, who had bought (some say stolen) the rights to the band's pre-1970 recordings, reissued the single, this time promoting You Can't Always Get What You Want as the A side. Klein's strategy worked and the song ended up cracking the top 40 and becoming one of the Stones' most beloved tunes.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Nothing Is Easy
Source: European import LP: Stand Up
Writer(s): Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis (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: In The Beginning/Lovely To See You
Source: CD: On The Threshold Of A Dream
Writer(s): Edge/Hayward
Label: Deram
Year: 1969
If there is any one band known for their concept albums, it's the Moody Blues. Starting with the 1967 LP Days Of Future Past, every Moody Blues album has been a concept album (except for their live albums, of course). 1969 saw two of these albums being released by the group. The first was On The Threshold Of A Dream, which explores dreams and the inner psyche. The opening track, In The Beginning, consists of a dialogue between Justin Hayward (as a man attempting to define himself as a human being), Graeham Edge (as the voice of technology attempting to usurp the role of humanity) and Michael Pinder (as the inner voice of the original speaker), set against a background of electronic effects created by Edge. Heady stuff, but that' pretty much what the Moody Blues were about in 1969.
Artist: Stevie Wonder
Title: Don't Know Why I Love You
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Wonder/Hunter/Hardaway/Reiser
Label: Tamla
Year: 1969
According to Motown boss Berry Gordy, Stevie Wonder and a lot of other people at the label put a lot of time and effort into the song originally titled I Don't Know Why. That wasn't to say, however, that they neglected the B side of the record. In fact, Berry later said that he had high expectations for both sides of every single Motownl released, figuring that if for some reason the A side didn't catch on, the B side stood a good chance of doing so instead. Such was the case here, as that B side was a little tune called My Cherie Amour. Not long after the record's original release, the Rolling Stones cut their own version of I Don't Know Why that was released as a single in 1975 by Allen Klein and credited at first to Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Mick Taylor. After several pressings Klein's company Abkco finally corrected the error, giving songwriting credit to Wonder, Paul Riser, Don Hunter and Lula Hardaway.
Artist: Uriah Heep
Title: The Park
Source: European import CD: Salisbury
Writer: Ken Hensley
Label: Sanctuary/BMG (original US label: Mercury)
Year: 1971
Uriah Heep's second album, Salisbury, saw the band shifting in a more progressive direction, thanks in large part to the input of keyboardist Ken Hensley, who wrote half the songs on the album. As the band's career progressed, Hensley would become the group's primary songwriter. One of the early Hensley tunes was the Park, a relatively quiet piece that gives David Byron a chance to exercise the higher end of his vocal range.
Artist: Joni Mitchell
Title: Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire
Source: LP: For The Roses (promo copy)
Writer(s): Joni Mitchell
Label: Asylum
Year: 1972
After releasing several albums for Reprise, Joni Mitchell signed with David Geffen's Asylum label in 1972. Her first album for the label was For The Roses, which includes one of her first forays into jazz-folk fusion, Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire, a powerful portrait of a heroin addict's life. Alone among Mitchell's albums, For The Roses was selected by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry in 2007.
Artist: Eagles
Title: Outlaw Man
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): David Blue
Label: Asylum
Year: 1973
Although all the members of the Eagles are known for the songwriting abilities, some of the earliest singles were actually cover songs, including Peaceful Easy Feeling (by Jack Tempchin) and Outlaw Man (by David Blue). Blue was a recent addition to the Asylum roster, making him labelmates with the Eagles, and Outlaw Man was an obvious choice for inclusion on an album meant to have a modernized wild west theme. The song itself is a first person account of the life of an outlaw, with ambiguous enough lyrics to make it applicable to current times as well as the obvious 19th century.
Artist: Joe Walsh
Title: Turn To Stone
Source: LP: So What
Writer(s): Walsh/Trebandt
Label: ABC/Dunhill
Year: 1974
Turn To Stone is one of Joe Walsh's better known solo tracks, but his 1974 recording of the tune on the album So What was not his first version of the song. That came two years earlier, on Walsh's first post James Gang LP, Barnstorm. Interestingly, the Barnstorm version credited Terry Trebandt (bassist for the Detroit-based Rationals) as co-writer of Turn To Stone, but was listed as a Walsh solo composition on So What.
Artist: Mahogany Rush
Title: Strange Universe
Source: LP: Strange Universe
Writer(s): Frank Marino
Label: 20th Century
Year: 1975
Although there are countless guitarists that have been influenced by Jimi Hendrix in various ways, only one has been able to capture his entire sound from a production as well as performance standpoint. That one is Frank Marino, whose band, Mahogany Rush, has been recording since 1972. A listen to the title track of the 1975 album Strange Universe pretty much proves my point.
Artist: Frank Zappa
Title: Don't Eat Yellow Snow/Nanook Rubs It/St. Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast/Father Oblivion
Source: CD: Apostrophe (')
Writer(s): Frank Zappa
Label: Zappa (original label: Discreet)
Year: 1974
Despite being one of the most prolific composer/performers of the 20th century, Frank Zappa only put three songs on the top 100 charts in his career. The first of these was an abbreviated version of Don't Eat Yellow Snow, the opening track on his 1974 LP Apostrophe ('). On the album itself the song segues directly into the next three tracks, Nanook Rubs It, St. Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast and the instrumental Father Oblivion to form the suite heard here.
Artist: Zephyr
Title: High-Flying Bird
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Billy Ed Wheeler
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1972
Guitarist Tommy Bolin left Zephyr after their second LP, Going Back To Colorado. His replacement was Jock Bartley, who can be heard doing more jazz-oriented licks on Zephyr's cover of Billy Ed Wheeler's High-Flying Bird from their Sunset Ride album. After leaving Zephyr, Bartley went on to co-found the soft-rock band Firefall, while vocalist Candy Givens continued to front an ever-changing lineup of Zephyr members until her death in 1984.
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