https://exchange.prx.org/p/632555
This week's show is made up almost entirely of album tracks (with a couple B sides to go with them), starting off with the LP version of a track released (in edited form) as a single in 1972, but that hasn't been heard much anywhere since then.
Artist: Chicago
Title: Dialogue
Source: LP: Chicago V
Writer(s): Robert Lamm
Label: Columbia
Year: 1972
In their early days Chicago was one of the more politically-oriented rock bands around. One of the more notable tracks on their first album (Someday) was built around the crowds in Lincoln Park chanting outside the 1968 Democratic convention. The group continued to make political statements for the next few years, although by the time they released their landmark four-disc live album they were firmly in the camp of advocating working within the system as opposed to overthrowing everything and starting over (sort of an evolution over revolution approach). One of the more interesting songs of this type is a condemnation of socio-political apathy called Dialogue, from the album Chicago V. The structure of the first half of the record is based on Plato's philosophical dialogues, with one vocalist, Robert Lamm, asking disturbing questions and the other, Peter Cetera, giving answers that are on the surface reassuring but in reality bespeak an attitude of burying one's head in the sand and hoping everything will turn out OK. This shifts into a call for everyone to work together to effect needed changes in the world, with the repeated line "We can make it happen" dominating the second half of the piece.
Artist: Atomic Rooster
Title: The Price
Source: British import LP: Assortment (originally released on LP : In Hearing Of)
Writer(s): Crane/Darnell
Label: Charisma
Year: 1971
The cover of In Hearing Of Atomic Rooster depicts an elderly woman using an ear trumpet. Although not the intention of the artist, this is an apt way to describe trying to hear John Cann's guitar parts on songs like the Price, which were deliberately buried in the mix by Vincent Crane after he fired Cann from the band before the album was released. Ironically, the album came out around the same time as the non-LP single Devil's Answer, which was written and sung by Cann (although the US release of the song had overdubbed vocals by new member Pete French).
Artist: Focus
Title: Anonymous II (part 1)
Source: LP: Focus 3
Writer(s): van Leer/Akkerman/Ruiter/van der Linden
Label: Sire
Year: 1972
Although Focus would be virtually unknown in the US until Hocus Pocus became a belated hit in 1973, the band was quite successful in Europe and the UK. The album Focus 3, released in 1972, topped the charts in the band's native Netherlands and made the top 10 in the UK. The double LP includes Anonymous II, the longest studio recording ever made by the band. The track contains solos by each of the band members, guitarist Thijs van Leer/Keyboardist Jan Akkerman, bassist Bert Ruiter, and drummer Pierre van der Linden. Unfortunately, the limitations of vinyl forced the band to break the 26 minute long piece into two separate segments, the longest being part one, which takes up the LP's entire third side.
Artist: Uriah Heep
Title: July Morning
Source: European import CD: Look At Yourself
Writer: Hensley/Byron
Label: Sanctuary/BMG (original US label: Mercury)
Year: 1971
Fans of the British rock group Uriah Heep have an ongoing argument over which is the best Heep album; Demons And Wizards, featuring the band's biggest hit single, Easy Livin', or its immediate predecessor, Look At Yourself, which includes the 10 and a half minute long classic July Morning. Both albums feature strong vocals by David Byron and songwriting by keyboardist Ken Hensley, as well as tasty guitar licks from Mick Box. Rather than take sides on this one, I'm just going to keep on playing tracks from all six early Uriah Heep albums.
Artist: Jaggerz
Title: Memoirs Of The Traveler
Source: Mono 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Rock/Ierace/Faiella
Label: Kama Sutra
Year: 1970
First off, the Jaggerz had nothing to do with the Rolling Stones. In fact the name Jaggerz comes from the Western Pennsylvania slang term "jagger bush", which means, literally, thorny bush. This is entirely appropriate, since the Jaggerz were in fact from Pittsburgh, the largest city in Western Pennsylvania. Led by Dominic Ierace (who later would go by the name Donnie Iris), the Jaggerz were formed in 1964, when Ierace joined up with a band that was then known as Gary and the Jewel Tones. Originally calling themselves the Jaggers, the band changed the last letter of their name to a "z" while recording their first album in 1968 after seeing a magazine ad for another band called the Jaggers. The album, released on the Gamble label (later known as Philadephia International) in 1969, got modest airplay in Western Pennsylvania, but did not chart nationally. Later that year the band signed with the Kama Sutra label, releasing their only major hit single, The Rapper, in December. Both The Rapper and its followup single, I Call My Baby Candy, were featured on the band's second LP, We Went To Different Schools Together, but had non-LP B sides. Their third single for Kama Sutra, however, was a non album track called What A Bummer, backed with another song from We Went To Different Schools Together, Memoirs Of The Traveler. Several more singles appeared over the next few years until their third album was released in 1975.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Rainmaker
Source: LP: The Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys
Writer(s): Winwood/Capaldi
Label: Island
Year: 1971
Rainmaker, the final tune from Traffic's fifth studio album, The Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys, is often overlooked by the critics when they compile "best of" lists. It is, however, a decent track that deserves to be heard much more often than it has been in the past.
Artist: Badfinger
Title: Flying
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Evans/Molland
Label: Apple
Year: 1971
Methinks somebody was trying to sound a bit too much like John Lennon on the first part of Flying, the B side of Badfinger's 1972 single Baby Blue. But the song does get a little better as it goes along.
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