https://exchange.prx.org/p/628303
This time around we have about 54 minutes of the kind of free-form rock you could find on the FM radio band across the US in the early 1970s. First, though, a track released as a single fifty years ago this month that is perhaps even more relevant now than it was then.
Artist: Blue Oyster Cult
Title: (Don't Fear) The Reaper
Source: European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Agents Of Fortune)
Writer(s): Donald Roeser
Label: Sony Music
Year: 1976
Guitarist/vocalist Buck Dharma wrote (Don't Fear) The Reaper in his late 20s. At the time, he said, he was expecting to die at a young age. Dharma (real name Donald Roeser), is now 78 years old. Personally, I can't hear this track without thinking of the 1994 miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Living In The Past
Source: LP: Living In The Past (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1969
By the end of the 1960s most UK labels had abandoned the British practice 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 LP 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: Cream
Title: Born Under A Bad Sign
Source: CD: Wheels Of Fire
Writer: Jones/Bell
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1968
Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker were pretty much considered the cream of the crop of the British blues scene in the mid 1960s, so it came as no surprise when they decided to call their new band Cream. Although the trio would go on to record several memorable non-blues tunes such as I Feel Free and White Room, they never completely abandoned the blues. Born Under A Bad Sign, originally recorded by Albert King for the Stax label and written by labelmates William Bell and Booker T. Jones, is one of the better known tracks from Cream's double-LP Wheels Of Fire, the last album released while the band was still together.
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.
Artist: Al Kooper/Mike Bloomfield/Barry Goldberg/Harvey Brooks/Eddie Hoh
Title: Albert's Shuffle (remix without horns)
Source: LP: Super Session
Writer(s): Bloomfield/Kooper
Label: Sundazed/Columbia
Year: 1968
There is no doubt that one of the most important and influential albums of the late 1960s was the Super Session album. Released in 1968, the album was conceived in part because keyboardist/producer Al Kooper felt that Michael Bloomfield had never been recorded in the right context to truly showcase his prowess as a guitarist. Taking advantage of his position as staff producer for Columbia Records, Kooper enlisted keyboardist Barry Goldberg and bassist Harvey Brooks (both of which had been Bloomfield's bandmates in the Electric Flag), as well as ace studio drummer Eddie Hoh for a series of taped jam sessions. Although Bloomfield himself went AWOL midway through the sessions, the quintet managed to get several outstanding tracks recorded, including Albert's Shuffle, which opens the LP. As originally released, several tracks included horn overdubs added by Kooper to fill out the sound. In 2003, two of these tracks, including Albert's Shuffle, were included with the horns removed as bonus tracks on the CD version of the Super Session album.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix/Gypsy Sun & Rainbows
Title: Isabella
Source: CD: Woodstock Two
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Atlantic (original label: Cotillion)
Year: Recorded 1969, released 1972
After disbanding the Experience in June of 1969, Jimi Hendrix retreated to the eight-bedroom 'Ashokan House' in the hamlet of Boiceville near Woodstock in upstate New York, where he found himself jamming with a larger group of musicians (including a rhythm guitarist, Jerry Lee) than he had previously had the opportunity to work with. He took this group (which he referred to onstage as Gypsy Sun and Rainbows) with him to the Woodstock Festival in June, where they performed several new numbers Hendrix was working on, including a song called Isabella. A studio version of the song was recorded the following year, and is now considered to be part of a double LP Hendrix planned to release in 1971. Meanwhile the live recording of Isabella, which was not included on the Woodstock soundtrack album, ended up being released on the album Woodstock Two in 1972.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: Friend Of The Devil
Source: CD: Skeletons From The Closet (originally released on LP: American Beauty)
Writer(s): Garcia/Dawson/Hunter
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1970
The Grateful Dead spent three years and four albums trying to capture the energy of their live performances on vinyl. Having finally succeeded with the 1969 Live Dead album the group began to focus more on their songwriting capabilities. The result was two outstanding studio albums, both released in 1970: Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. Of the two, American Beauty is made up almost entirely of songs played on acoustic instruments, including pedal steel guitar, which was played by Jerry Garcia. One of the best-known tracks on American Beauty is Friend Of The Devil, which lyricist Robert Hunter referred to as "the closest we've come to what may be a classic song."
Artist: Doors
Title: Love Her Madly
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1971
Released as a single in advance of the 1971 Doors album L.A. Woman, Love Her Madly was a major success, peaking just outside the top 10 in the US, and going all the way to the #3 spot in Canada. The album itself was a return to a more blues-based sound by the Doors, a change that did not sit well with producer Paul Rothchild, who left the project early on, leaving engineer Bruce Botnik to assume production duties. Rothchild's opinion aside, it was exactly what the Doors needed to end their run (in their original four man incarnation) on a positive note.
Artist: Lighthouse
Title: Sunny Days
Source: Mono 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Skip Prokop
Label: Evolution
Year: 1972
After three albums for RCA Victor, the Toronto based Lighthouse changed labels, at the same time undergoing personnel changes that resulted in the band having a new front man, Bob McBride. Five of the original members, including drummer Skip Prokop, remained with the band, which had its greatest success on the Evolution label with the hits One Fine Morning and Sunny Days, both written by Prokop. Not long after the release of Sunny Days in 1972 Prokop decided to retire from live performing, although he did stay on as executive producer. When sessions began in New York for the 1973 album Can You Feel It, McBride was nowhere to be found and was subsequently fired from the band. Although Lighthouse continues as a working band to this day, they've never been able to equal the success of their Evolution years.
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Title: Over The Hills And Far Away
Source: CD: Houses Of The Holy
Writer(s): Page/Plant
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1973
Although it was released in 1973 on the album Houses Of The Holy, Over The Hills And Far Away actually dates back to the 1970 songwriting sessions at Bron-Y-Aur that produced most of the music for the Led Zeppelin III album. The band started playing the song in concert in 1972 and released it as a single in advance of the Houses Of The Holy album in early 1973. Although it only got a lukewarm reception from the rock press when it was first released, Over The Hills And Far Away has since come to be regarded as one of Led Zeppelin's top songs, making several "best of" lists over the years.
Artist: Genesis
Title: Horizons
Source: CD: Foxtrot
Writer(s): Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label: Rhino/Atlantic (original label: Charisma)
Year: 1972
Although credited to the entire band, Horizons is a short acoustic guitar instrumental written by Steve Hackett, who is the only member of Genesis to actually play on the track. The tune, based on a piece by J.S. Bach, opens side two of the 1972 LP Foxtrot.
Artist: Uriah Heep
Title: Dreamer
Source: CD: Sweet Freedom
Writer(s): Thain/Box
Label: Sequel (original US label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1973
Even though Uriah Heep was known for their high energy rock, there always seemed to be one song on each album that managed to rock out even harder than the rest of them. On the band's sixth LP, Sweet Freedom, that song was Dreamer, the album's opening track. Co-written by guitarist Mick Box and bassist Gary Thain (the only known collaboration between the two), Dreamer has an energy level that approaches frenetic, especially on the song's fadeout ending. Wild stuff!
Artist: Captain Beyond
Title: Dancing Madly Backward (On A Sea Of Air)/Armworth/Myopic Void
Source: LP: Captain Beyond
Writer(s): Evans/Caldwell
Label: Capricorn
Year: 1972
Never in my life have I been as impressed with a band I had never heard of before seeing them perform live as I was with Captain Beyond when I saw them in El Paso in 1972. They were so good I barely remember how the second band, Jo Jo Gunne sounded, and I'd totally forgotten who the actual headliner was (it turns out it was Alice Cooper). The next day I went out and bought Captain Beyond's debut LP and immediately saw on the back cover the words "Dedicated to the memory of Duane Allman". That was, for me, simply icing on an already tasty cake. Captain Beyond opened their set the same way they opened the album itself, with Bobby Caldwell's solo drum rift setting things up for Larry (Rhino) Reinhardt's opening power chords, played in unison with Lee Dorman's bass. Rod Evans's vocals were every bit as good, if not better, than they had been when he was an original member of Deep Purple, and the group was so tight it sounded like you were listening to the album itself. The first three songs, Dancing Madly Backward (On A Sea Of Air), Armworth and Myopic Void play as a single piece. Although all the songs are officially credited only to Evans and Caldwell, it turns out that there were contractual issues concerning Reinhardt and Dorman's status as members of Iron Butterfly at the time that prevented them from sharing songwriting credits on the Captain Beyond LP.
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