https://exchange.prx.org/p/631616
With one exception, nothing on this week's show has been heard on Rockin' in the Days of Confusion for at least two years. In fact, four of this week's 13 tracks, including three of the first four, have never been played on the show before at all.
Artist: Black Sabbath
Title: Hand Of Doom
Source: CD: Paranoid
Writer(s): Iommi/Osbourne/Butler/Ward
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1970
Given the reputation and history of Black Sabbath, it may come as a surprise that Hand Of Doom, from the band's second LP, Paranoid, is actually an anti-drug song, albeit one that actually explores the circumstances leading up to drug addiction. It's also seven minutes of some of the heaviest rock recorded up to that point.
Artist: Janis Joplin
Title: To Love Somebody
Source: CD: I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama
Writer(s): Barry & Robin Gibb
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1969
Janis Joplin's first solo album, I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama, got a lukewarm reception, both from the rock press and from fans of the singer who had been listening to her since her days with Big Brother And The Holding Company. The main problem seems to be that, while musically more proficient than the members of Big Brother, Joplin's new group (sometimes called the Kozmic Blues Band) never seemed to gel as a group. The fact that all but two of the tracks on the LP were cover songs didn't help matters, either. In fact one of those covers, To Love Somebody, was of a song that had been a hit single for the Bee Gees, a group about as far removed from the San Francisco scene as one could imagine in 1969.
Artist: Elton John
Title: Talking Old Soldiers
Source: LP: Tumbleweed Connection
Writer(s): John/Taupin
Label: Uni
Year: 1970
The Wikipedia entry for Elton John's third album, Tumbleweed Connection, calls it a "concept album based on country and western and Americana themes." Well, I guess two out of three ain't bad. It certainly contains both Americana and Western themes, having been heavily influenced by Marty Robbins's El Paso, but I have to take issue with the use of the term "country and western". The fact is, that, until the 1950s the two were separate musical genres, with country music based in the music of Appalachia and the South, while western music was more sophisticated, drawing elements from other genres. The aforemention El Paso, for instance, incorporated elements of Ranchero music, something that never would have occured to someone like Jimmie Rodgers or Hank Williams. Of course, more than anything else, Tumbleweed Connection sounds like an Elton John album, as can be plainly heard on songs like Talking Old Soldiers.
Artist: Wishbone Ash
Title: Lullabye
Source: LP: Pilgrimage
Writer(s): Powell/Turner/Upton/Turner
Label: MCA (original US label: Decca)
Year: 1971
After establishing themselves as a hard-rocking band feature harmony lead guitars on their first album, Wishbone Ash immediately went in the opposite direction for the opening track of their second LP, Pilgrim. Although still featuring two lead guitars, Lullabye is a much more laid back piece than anything on the band's debut LP.
Artist: Allman Brothers Band
Title: Midnight Rider
Source: CD: Electric Seventies (originally released on LP: Idlewild South)
Writer(s): Gregg Allman
Label: JCI/Warner Special Markets (original labels: Capricorn/Atco)
Year: 1970
Gregg Allman said it only took him about an hour to come up with most of what would come to be known as his signature song, Midnight Rider. He had problems coming up with lyrics for the third verse, however, and finally turned to Kim Payne, one of the band's roadies, for help. The two of them broke into the Capricorn studios late at night to record a demo of the song, which was later re-recorded by the full Allman Brothers Band and released on their second LP, Idlewild South. The song was released as the second single from the album, but did not chart in its original form, even though that recording is far superior to the various cover versions (including one by Gregg Allman himself as a solo artist) that actually did chart over the years.
Artist: Blue Öyster Cult
Title: I'm On The Lamb, But I Ain't No Sheep
Source: LP: Blue Öyster Cult
Writer(s): Bloom/Bouchard/Pearlman
Label: Columbia
Year: 1972
I'm On The Lamb, But I Ain't No Sheep was first recorded in 1970, shortly after the band that would become Blue Öyster Cult had changed its name from Soft White Underbelly to Oaxaca. The song, about a guy being chased by the Mounties, was re-recorded later that same year for the band's first album for Elektra, when the band was calling itself the Stalk-Forrest Group, but that album remained unreleased until 2001. The song was recorded again and finally released on Blue Öyster Cult's self-titled debut LP for Columbia in 1972. The following year a faster and heavier version of the song titled The Red And The Black was recorded for their followup LP, Tyranny And Mutation.
Artist: Cactus
Title: Feel So Good
Source: CD: Cactus
Writer(s): Appice/Bogert/Day/McCarty
Label: Wounded Bird (original label: Atco)
Year: 1970
In September of 1969 guitarist Jeff Beck approached former Vanilla Fudge drummer Carmine Appice and bassist Tim Bogert about forming a new band. Those plans fell through, however, when Beck fractured his skull in a car accident that December. Bogert and Appice quickly recruited vocalist Rusty Day, formerly of the Amboy Dukes, and guitarist Jim McCarty from the Detroit Wheels to form Cactus, releasing their first LP in July of 1970. The album, which can best be described as blues-based hard rock, closes with Feel So Good, which includes an Appice drum solo.
Artist: Steppenwolf
Title: Ride With Me
Source: 45 RPM single (stereo promo copy)
Writer(s): Mars Bonfire
Label: Dunhill
Year: 1971
By 1971 Steppenwolf's best years were already behind them. Looking to rekindle the old magic, the band turned to songwriter (and former band member) Dennis Edmonton, who, under the pseudonym Mars Bonfire, had penned their biggest hit, Born To Be Wild. Although Ride With Me was a solid song, it stalled out in the lower reaches of the top 40 charts while being virtually ignored by more progressive album rock stations.
Artist: James Gang
Title: There I Go Again
Source: CD: James Gang Rides Again
Writer(s): Joe Walsh
Label: MCA (original label: ABC)
Year: 1970
The two sides of James Gang Rides Again sound like two entirely different albums. As it turns out, this was somewhat intentional. According to bassist Dale Peters, guitarist Joe Walsh had written a set of acoustic tunes while the band was recording what would become side one of the album. Rather than try to hastily come up with another side's worth of tunes, the band decided just to let Walsh record the songs he had already written with a minimum of accompaniment. Among those tunes on side two of James Gang Rides Again is There I Go Again, a catchy number that features Walsh on both acoustic and (overdubbed) steel guitar.
Artist: Genesis
Title: The Return Of The Giant Hogweed
Source: CD: Nursery Crymes
Writer(s): Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label: Atlantic (original label: Charisma)
Year: 1971
The Return Of The Giant Hogweed, from the 1971 Genesis album Nursery Cryme, is actually based on a true story about an invasive organism brought to England from Russia in the 1800s. Genesis, thanks in large part to the sense of whimsy brought to the band by their new drummer, Phil Collins, deliberately exaggerated the story, making the Giant Hogweed a threat to civilization as we know it. Nursery Crymes itself, although officially the third Genesis album, was in fact the debut of the band's classic lineup of Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Mike Rutherford and new guitarist Steve Hackett, who joined a few months after founding member Anthony Phillips left the group following the release of the Trespass album. This lineup would remain intact until the departure of Gabriel in 1975.
Artist: Mahavishnu Orchestra
Title: Open Country Joy
Source: 45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s): John McLaughlin
Label: Columbia
Year: 1973
John McLaughlin. Billy Cobham. Rick Laird. Jan Hammer. Jerry Goodman. All were destined to become jazz-rock fusion stars by the end of the decade, but in 1971 the term fusion, as applied to music, was not yet in use. Yet fusion was indeed the most appropriate word for the Mahavishnu Orchestra, whose five members came from five different countries: England, Ireland, Panama, Czechoslovakia (as it was then known) and the US, respectively. The members came from a variety of musical backgrounds as well. McLaughlin (who wrote all the group's material) and Cobham had met while working on Miles Davis' Bitches Brew album, while Goodman had recorded two albums with the Chicago-based Flock. The Mahavishnu Orchestra was known for its ability to quickly shift between music styles on such tracks as Open Country Joy, which appeared on the group's second LP, Birds of Fire, as well as being released as a single.The original band disbanded after only two albums, but McLaughlin would later revive the group with a different lineup in the 1980s.
Artist: Steely Dan
Title: Pretzel Logic
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s): Becker/Fagan
Label: MCA (original label: ABC)
Year: 1974
Steely Dan's third album, Pretzel Logic, was almost universally praised by the rock press, including NME magazine, which named it the 1974 album of the year, and Village Voice critic Robert Christgau, who ranked it at the top of his own annual list. The title track, according to co-writer Donald Fagan, is actually about time travel, and includes references to Napoleon Bonaparte and travelling minstrel shows.
Artist: Canned Heat
Title: Bagful Of Boogie
Source: LP: One More River To Cross
Writer(s): Canned Heat
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1973
There is no doubt that when it comes to longevity, the Rolling Stones are the undisputed kings of rock. But not far behind them is Canned Heat, a band that is still performing in spite of the fact that none of the original members of the band are still around. In fact, the band's membership has always been a revolving door, with only two of the band's founders, vocalist Robert Hite and guitarist Alan Wilson, making it as far as the group's first album. By 1973 even Wilson was gone, yet Hite and drummer Adolfo de la Parra (who had joined the group in time for their second LP in 1968) were able to attract quality musicians, including Hite's brother Richard on bass, Ed Beyer on keyboards, James Shane on rhythm guitar and former member Henry Vestine on lead guitar, for the band's tenth studio album, One More River To Cross. It was their first album on the Atlantic label, the band members having successfully negotiated their way out of their long-term contract with Liberty Records, which itself had been folded into United Artists. As usual, the album included a mixture of blues covers and band originals, with Bagful Of Boogie being an example of the latter.
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