https://exchange.prx.org/p/622888
No matter how you calculate it, 25% of the tunes on this week's show have never been played on Rockin' in the Days of Confusion before. That's gotta count for something, right?
Artist: Seatrain
Title: 13 Questions
Source: Mono 45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s): Kulberg/Roberts
Label: Capitol
Year: 1970
Despite being formed by the remaining members of the Blues Project, Seatrain spent most of its four years under the radar, getting little attention from the rock press and even less from the record buying public. Some of this lack of popularity can be attributed to the band's basic instability. None of their four albums (for three different labels!) have the same lineup, making it hard to establish a fan base. The fact that they didn't fit neatly into any particular genre, having elements of folk, country and jazz as well as rock, didn't help either. Their most successful record was the 1970 single, 13 Questions. Anyone who bought the album Seatrain soon realized, however, that the punchy horn-heavy single was nothing like the rest of the LP.
Artist: Johnny Winter
Title: I Love Everybody
Source: LP: Second Winter
Writer(s): Johnny Winter
Label: Columbia
Year: 1969
Following the success of Johnny Winter's self-titled Columbia debut LP, the guitarist went to work on a followup LP with a slightly expanded lineup. In addition to future Double Trouble member Tommy Shannon on bass and Uncle John Turner on drums, the group featured Winter's brother Edgar on keyboards. When it came time to set the final track lineup, however, they realized they had recorded more material than they could fit on a standard LP, but not enough for a double album. Not wanting to leave any of the material they had recorded off the album, they decided to release Second Winter as a three-sided LP (the fourth side being left totally blank). Although not a conventional solution, a listen to tracks like I Love Everybody (which opens side three of the LP) shows that it was totally justified.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: Gonna Run
Source: CD: Watt
Writer(s): Alvin Lee
Label: Chrysalis (original label: Deram)
Year: 1970
The fifth Ten Years After album, Watt, was somewhat unfairly criticized by the rock press for being "more of the same" from the British blues-rock band. When "the same" refers to an album of the calibur of Cricklewood Green, however, that is not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, some tracks, such as Gonna Run, are at least the equal of any song on the previous album, and show a growing awareness on the part of the band of how to use the recording studio creatively.
Artist: Savoy Brown
Title: Tell Mama
Source: LP: Street Corner Talking
Writer(s): Simmonds/Raymond
Label: Parrot
Year: 1971
Following the release of the sixth Savoy Brown LP, Looking In, bandleader and lead guitarist Kim Simmonds dismissed the rest of the band over differences of opinion concerning the future direction the band would take musically. Simmonds himself wanted to maintain a strong connection to the band's blues roots, while the other members wanted to go in more of a hard rock direction (which they did by forming Foghat). Meanwhile, Simmonds recruited three former members of Chicken Shack, Paul Raymond on keyboards and occasional second guitar, Andy Silvester on bass and Dave Bidwell on drums, along with vocalist David Walker, to be the new Savoy Brown. Their first LP together was Street Corner Talking, an album that continued to build up their American following, thanks to strong material like Tell Mama, the album's opening track.
Artist: Deep Purple
Title: Lucille
Source: Japanese import CD: Made In Japan (bonus track)
Writer(s): Collins/Penniman
Label: Rhino/Purple
Year: Recorded 1972, released 1998
Toward the end of 1971 the members of Deep Purple started thinking about making a live album. At the time such things were still a rarity, and it wasn't until the following summer that they finally made the recordings that would become the double LP Made In Japan. One song that was not on the original album was a hard-rocking cover of Little Richard's Lucille, recorded in Osaka on August 16, 1972. The song was finally included on an expanded CD version of the album in 1998.
Artist: Paul McCartney And Wings
Title: No Words
Source: European import LP: Band On The Run
Writer(s): McCartney/Laine
Label: MPL (original label: Apple)
Year: 1973
You would think that, after years of sharing writing credit with John Lennon on virtually everything musical either of them created, Paul McCartney might be inclined to take sole writing credit for his later material. Not so. Most of his 70s work co-credits his wife Linda and one track, No Words, from the 1973 LP Band On The Run, credits Denny Laine, the former Moody Blues member who was the third person making up the nucleus of the band Wings. No Words also has the distinction of being the shortest track (at 2:35) on Band On The Run.
Artist: John Lennon
Title: #9 Dream
Source: CD: Lennon (box set) (originally released on LP: Walls And Bridges)
Writer(s): John Lennon
Label: Capitol (original label: Apple)
Year: 1974
#9 Dream has the distinction of being John Lennon's last original composition to be released as a single before his five year hiatus from recording (from 1975-80), as well as his last song to hit the top 10 during his lifetime. The tune, from the Walls And Bridges album, is one of the most lavishly produced recordings in the Lennon catalog, featuring string arrangements written by Lennon himself. The song peaked at (coincidentally) the #9 spot on the Billboard charts in the US.
Artist: Mahavishnu Orchestra
Title: Can't Stand Your Funk
Source: 45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s): John McLaughlin
Label: Columbia
Year: 1975
The original lineup of the Mahavishnu Orchestra dissolved in 1974. The following year guitarist John McLaughlin unveiled a new incarnation of the band that featured violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, keyboardist Gayle Moran, bassist Ralphe Armstrong and percussionist Narada Michael Walden, supplemented by a string quartet consisting of Steve Kindler and Carol Shive on violin, Marcia Westbrook on viola, and Phil Hirschi on cello, along with Steve Frankevich, Russell Tubbs on alto, tenor and soprano saxophones, and Bob Knapp on brass. Westbrook and Frankevich had left the group by 1975, when they released the album Visions Of The Emerald Beyond. Can't Stand Your Funk was the only single released from that album.
Artist: Jeff Beck
Title: Head For Backstage Pass
Source: CD: Wired
Writer(s): Bascomb/Clark
Label: Epic
Year: 1976
After Beck, Bogert and Appice disbanded in 1974, guitarist Jeff Beck decided that his next album would be an all-instrumental one. That album, Blow By Blow, was both a commercial and critical success, prompting Beck to continue in the same vein with his next LP, Wired. Although percussionist Narada Michael Walden was the primary composer of the material on Wired, others, including bassist Wilbur Bascomb, who co-wrote Head For Backstage Pass, contributed to the songwriting duties as well. In fact, Beck himself had no writing credits on the album.
Artist: Genesis
Title: Dancing With The Moonlit Knight
Source: CD: Selling England By The Pound
Writer(s): Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label: Rhino/Atlantic (original label: Charisma)
Year: 1973
In early 1973 Genesis was coming under fire by some British music critics for trying too hard to appeal to an American audience. The band responded with the album Selling England By The Pound. The title was chosen by vocalist Peter Gabriel, who borrowed it from a slogan used by the UK's Labor Party at the time. The lyrics of pieces such as Dancing With The Moonlit Knight, which opens the album, puts an emphasis on the decay of British folk culture in favor of rampant Americanization. The song itself is based on piano pieces composed by Gabriel, embellished with guitar parts from Steve Hackett and a choir effect (created on a mellotron) from keyboardist Tony Banks. Although Selling England By The Pound got a mixed reaction from both audience and critics at the time it was released, it has since gone on to achieve gold record status and has been cited by Hackett as being his favorite Genesis album.
Artist: Firesign Theatre
Title: Mark Time!
Source: LP: Dear Friends
Writer(s): Proctor/Bergman/Austin/Ossman
Label: Columbia
Year: Originally broadcast: 1970, LP released 1972
Dear Friends was the name of the Firesign Theatre's weekly live radio show that ran on Los Angeles station KPFK from September 16, 1970 through Feb 17. 1971. Later in 1971 the shows were edited into hour-long shows that were distributed to radio stations across the country. The group then compiled a two-LP collection of the show's best bits and released it in January of 1972 as (what else?) Dear Friends. Many of the bits are essentially improv pieces, but there were a few more heavily-rehearsed pieces included on the album as well. One of my own favorites is Mark Time, a parody of the kind of action/adventure/science fiction radio serials that were a staple of network radio in the days before television.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Light Up Or Leave Me Alone
Source: CD: Smiling Phases (originally released on LP: The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys)
Writer(s): Jim Capaldi
Label: Island
Year: 1971
Jim Capaldi always wanted to be a front man. In fact, he was the lead vocalist and founder of his own band, the Sapphires, when he was just 14 years old. In 1963 he switched to drums to form the Hellions with guitarists Dave Mason and Gordon Jackson. The following year the Hellions got a gig backing up Tanya Day at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany, where he met Steve Winwood, who was staying at the same hotel as a member of the Spencer Davis Group. In 1965 Capaldi became the band's front man with the addition of Poli Palmer as the band's new drummer. Although the Hellions were a successful performing band, none of their four singles (including one in 1966 under the name Revolution) charted. Mason left the band that year and the remaining members recorded a few demos for Giorgio Gomelsky, but they were not released at the time. During this time Capaldi often sat in with Winwood, Mason and flautist Chris Wood for after-hours jam sessions at Birmingham's Elbow Club. In 1967 they officially formed Traffic, with Capaldi and Winwood co-writing the bulk of the band's material. After Winwood left Traffic to join Blind Faith, Capaldi, Mason and Wood tried to get a new band going with keyboardist Mick Weaver, but things didn't work out. In early 1970 Capaldi and Wood accepted Winwood's invitation to help with what was to be his debut solo album, but which ended up being a reformed Traffic's John Barleycorn Must Die. With the addition of drummer Jim Gordon on the album Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys, Capaldi finally got a chance to front the band on two songs, one of which, Light Up Or Leave Me Alone, he wrote without Winwood's assistance. For the remainder of his life, in addition to continuing to work with Winwood as a member of Traffic and later on his solo albums, Capaldi pursued a successful solo career, scoring several hits on the British charts. His biggest American hit was That's Love, which hit the #28 spot in 1983. Jim Capaldi died from stomach cancer in 2005 at age 60.
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