https://exchange.prx.org/p/625553
The elephant in the room this week is Pink...as in Floyd, as we present the entire second side of the 1975 album Wish You Were Here. There are other critters running around as well, including Black Oak Arkansas, Ten Years After and, to get things started on a rather retro note, Jethro Tull.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Living In The Past
Source: CD: Stand Up (bonus track) (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol (original US label: Reprise)
Year: 1969
By the end of the 1960s most UK labels had abandoned the British tradition of not including singles on LPs. One notable exception was Island Records, who continued to issue mutually exclusive Jethro Tull albums, singles and EPs into the early 1970s. Among those non-LP tracks was the 1969 single Living In The Past, which would not be included on an album until 1972, when the song became the title track of a double LP Jethro Tull retrospective. The song then became a hit all over again, including in the US, where the original single had failed to chart.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Have A Cigar/Wish You Were Here/Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX)
Source: CD: Wish You Were Here
Writer(s): Waters/Gilmour/Wright
Label: Parlophone (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1975
One of the most recognizable songs in the entire Pink Floyd catalog, Have A Cigar is an indictment of the hypocrisy, greed and general sleaziness that drives the modern music industry. Recorded in Abby Road's studio 3, the song featured guest vocalist Roy Harper, who was working on an album of his own in studio 2 at the time. Both David Gilmour and Roger Waters attempted to sing the song (which was written by Waters), but were unhappy with the results. Gilmour had already contributed some guitar parts to Harper's album, and decided to ask Harper to return the favor. During the song's fadeout, the sound quality suddenly changes to resemble that of a cheap car radio speaker, and is followed by the sound of a radio dial being retuned to a new station playing the song Wish You Were Here. The song itself is often thought to be a tribute to Syd Barrett, but Waters, who wrote the lyrics, has since said that they were more self-directed. The final track on the album, however, is most definitely a tribute to Pink Floyd's original leader, who had been asked to leave the band in 1968 because of his mental health issues. In fact, Barrett himself showed up in the studio on July 5, 1975 when the band was putting the finishing touches on Shine On You Crazy Diamond. David Gilmour, who had known Barrett since childhood, was getting married later that day, and Barrett had come for the reception, showing up early to visit with his former bandmates. At first nobody knew who the overweight guy with shaved head and eyebrows was, and when Rick Wright, who was the first to recognize Barrett, identified him to the rest of the band, they were reportedly "shocked and horrified" to see the state he was in. Witnesses described Barrett as "not entirely sensible" and "not really there", adding that he didn't seem to realize that he himself was the subject of the song the band was working on. After the wedding reception Barrett left without saying goodbye; it was the last time most of the band members would see him alive.
Artist: Steeleye Span
Title: All Around My Hat
Source: LP: All Around My Hat
Writer(s): Trad., arr. Hart/Prior/Knight/Johnson/Kemp
Label: Chrysalis
Year: 1975
Steeleye Span hit the peak of their popularity in 1975 with the album All Around My Hat, which spent six months on the British album charts, peaking at #7. It was also their first album to chart in the US, peaking at #143. Although all the songs on the album, including the title track, were credited to the band members, they were actually traditional English folk ballads that had been given electric rock arrangements by the band. The song All Around My Hat, released as a single in edited form, reached #5 on the British charts, becoming the group's highest charting single.
Artist: Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Title: Second Hand
Source: LP: Not Fragile
Writer(s): Randy Bachman
Label: Mercury
Year: 1974
As of 1974, Bachman-Turner Overdrive had achieved considerable success on the top 40 charts with Let It Ride and Takin' Care Of Business, but had yet to gain an audience on FM rock radio. That changed, however, with the release of Not Fragile in September of 1974. Bolstered by the addition of Blair Thornton on "second lead guitar", Not Fragile lived up to its title with hard-rocking tunes like Second Hand. Bandleader Randy Bachman later said "Not Fragile was when it all came together for us. We captured the album-oriented rock audience as well as the singles audience with that album. Not Fragile made BTO recognized around the world."
Artist: Black Oak Arkansas
Title: Jim Dandy
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Lincoln Chase
Label: Atco
Year: 1973
My first exposure to Black Oak Arkansas was at a Grand Funk Railroad concert in August of 1971. I had literally arrived on the campus of Southwestern University in Weatherford Oklahoma the night before the concert, having hitchhiked there from New Mexico. On arrival I soon learned that my bandmates DeWayne and Mike, whose dorm room I was crashing in, already had tickets for the concert in Norman, Oklahoma. They invited me to come along, assuring me that I could easily score tickets at the gate. As it turns out they were right, but by the time we got there the only tickets left were bleacher seats. Of course, the rest of the group that made the drive to Norman all had floor tickets, so I ended up sitting by myself up in the nosebleed section for the opening act, a group I had never heard of called Black Oak Arkansas. I decided that, for the next 45 minutes or so, I would be a reviewer, and started analyzing this new band one song at a time. To be honest, I wasn't all that impressed at first, but found each successive song to be a little bit better than the one before it. By the time the band had finished their set, I was electrified (literally, since the last song was called The Day Electricity Came To Arkansas). I eventually bought a copy of the album Black Oak Arkansas, and was pleased to discover that the songs were in the exact same order on the LP as I had first heard them in concert. Over the years I continued to follow the band's progress, and was happy to hear, in 1973, their remake of an old LaVerne Baker song, Jim Dandy, on the local AM radio station. In fact, I went out and bought a copy of the 45 RPM single (which has since been replaced more than once with less scratchy copies).
Artist: James Gang
Title: Harry Hypochondriac
Source: LP: Straight Shooter
Writer(s): Peters/Troiano/Kenner
Label: ABC
Year: 1972
One of the most interesting rock and roll histories of the early 1970s was that of the James Gang. Originally consisting of drummer Jim Fox, bassist Tom Criss and guitarist Joe Walsh, the Cleveland-based band first appeared on vinyl on 1969's Yer Album. After replacing Criss (who didn't want to tour) with Dale Peters, the group released James Gang Rides Again, which, thanks to tracks like Funk #49 made them stars. Following one more album with this lineup, Walsh left the group for a solo career. With the departure of Walsh, whose style had dominated the James Gang's first three albums, the remaining two members decided to carry on without him, recruiting two new members, vocalist Roy Kenner and guitarist Dominic Troiano. Both had been members of the Canadian R&B club band Mandala that had been succeeded by the more rock-oriented Bush, but that band had been unsuccessful in finding an American audience. The first album with this new lineup was Straight Shooter, released in 1972. Although the group made a conscious effort to maintain the original James Gang sound, there were a couple of tunes, such as Harry Hypochondriac, that took a bit more whimsical approach. After one more album, Troiano left the group to replace Randy Bachman in the Guess Who, and the James Gang recruited Tommy Bolin, whose outstanding guitar work once again put the band in the national spotlight. But that's a story for another time.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: No Title
Source: CD: Stonedhenge
Writer(s): Alvin Lee
Label: Deram/Polygram
Year: 1969
After achieving what guitarist/vocalist Alvin Lee called the "ultimate" live Ten Years After album, Undead, in 1968, the group was left wondering what to do next. Their solution was to go experimental with the band's third LP, Stonedhenge. The longest track on the album, No Title, starts off as a slow, moody, blues-oriented piece that, without missing a beat becomes a loud showcase for Alvin Lee's guitar pyrotechnics. This is followed by a thumping hard rock section featuring Chick Churchill's organ work, leading to a short jazz-oriented section that uses a rather psychedelic studio effect to return to the song's slow beginnings and a musique concrète finale.
Artist: Harvey Mandel
Title: Snake
Source: LP: Cristo Redentor
Writer(s): Harvey Mandel
Label: Philips
Year: 1968
Harvey Mandel first came to national attention as the guitarist on Stand Back! Here Comes Charlie Musselwhite's South Side Band, one of the first blues albums to be also targeted to rock listeners. One of the standout tracks on the album was Christo Redemptor, which has come to be considered Musselwhite's signature song. Not long after the album was released, Mandel moved to San Francisco, performing regularly at the Matrix club and often jamming with fellow guitarists Elvin Bishop and Jerry Garcia. A chance meeting with local disc jockey Abe "Voco" Kesh led to Mandel's first solo LP, released in 1968. The album, titled Cristo Redentor as a tribute to Musselwhite, was made up entirely of instrumentals like Mandel's self-penned Snake, and ultimately led to Mandel being invited to replace Henry Vestine in Canned Heat the following year.
Artist: Neil Young/Crazy Horse
Title: Cinnamon Girl
Source: CD: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Writer(s): Neil Young
Label: Reprise
Year: 1969
My favorite Neil Young song has always been Cinnamon Girl. I suspect this is because the band I was in the summer after I graduated from high school used an amped-up version of the song as our show opener (imagine Cinnamon Girl played like I Can See For Miles and you get a general idea of how it sounded). If we had ever recorded an album, we probably would have used that arrangement as our first single. I finally got to see Neil Young perform the song live (from the 16th row even) with Booker T. and the MGs as his stage band in the mid-1990s. It was worth the wait.
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