https://exchange.prx.org/p/637949
This week we are featuring tunes you might have been hearing on the radio in 1972, if you were lucky enough to live in an area within the range of an FM rock radio station. A couple of tunes date back to around 1968, but they were (and are) classics that never get old.
Artist: Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show
Title: The Cover Of "Rolling Stone"
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Shel Silverstein
Label: Columbia
Year: 1972
Much of the success of Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show can be attributed to one man: Shel Silverstein. In addition to writing nearly every well-known Dr. Hook song, including The Cover Of "Rolling Stone", Silverstein was an accomplished cartoonist, having been published regularly in Playboy since the late 1950s, and prose writer whose works included the children's book The Giving Tree. He also wrote songs for such varied artists as Johnny Cash (A Boy Named Sue), Tompall Glazer (Put Another Log On The Fire) and the Irish Rovers (The Unicorn).
Artist: Davic Bowie
Title: Bob Dylan
Source: CD: Hunky Dory
Writer(s): David Bowie
Label: Parlophone (original label: RCA Victor)
Year: 1971
It takes a lot of audiciousness to write and perform a song called Bob Dylan. But as the world was quickly learning in 1971, audaciousness was just one of several cards in David Bowie's deck.
Artist: Ringo Starr
Title: Back Off Boogaloo
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Richard Starkey
Label: Apple
Year: 1972
Ringo was never the most prolific songwriter in the world (or even in the Beatles), but he did manage to turn out a memorable one in 1972 with Back Off Boogaloo. Although not a particularly sophisticated piece of music, it is most certainly earworm-inducing, which in the world of popular music is probably more important.
Artist: Five Man Electrical Band
Title: Absolutely Right
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Les Emmerson
Label: Lionel
Year: 1971
Formed in Ottawa in 1963, the Staccatos had a string of Canadian hits from 1963 throught 1968. After their producer, Nick Venet, told the band that the name Staccatos sounded dated, the band rechristened themselves The Five Man Electric Band, releasing their first album under that name (including several tracks originally released as Staccatos singles) in 1969. The band switched labels and released the album Good-byes and Butterflies in 1970. The following year, the opening track from Good-byes and Butterflies became an international hit. Originally issued as a B side in October of 1970, Signs was re-released in February of 1971, and by summer was in the top 5 in both the US and Canada, as well as spending two weeks at #1 in Australia. The band followed it up with a song called Absolutely Right. Although the song made the top 10 in several US and Canadian cities, it only peaked at a disappointing #26 on the Billboard charts. After two more albums and several more singles, the Five Man Electrical Band finally disbanded in 1975.
Artist: Gentle Giant
Title: Dog's Life
Source: CD: Octopus
Writer(s): Minnear/Shulman/Shulman/Shulman
Label: Columbia
Year: 1972
Although not a major commercial success, Gentle Giant's fourth album, Octopus, is generally considered to be the beginning of the band's peak period, and according to band member Ray Shulman, their best album overall. One of my favorite tracks on the album is Dog's Life, which is a somewhat whimsical look at a day in the life of man's best friend, the song's musical arrangement is unique in that it combines acoustic guitar, string quartet and vocals in a way seldom heard in rock music.
Artist: Shuggie Otis
Title: Strawberry Letter 23
Source: European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Freedom Flight)
Writer(s): Shuggie Otis
Label: Sony Music (original label: Epic)
Year: 1971
Johnny Alexander Veliotes Jr. first started playing guitar at age two. Since his father was also named Johnny Alexander Veliotes his mother just called him Sugar, which soon became Shuggie. His father was a successful musician in his own right, whose recording career dated by to 1945, eight years before Shuggie's birth. Shuggie began performing with his father's band at the age of eleven, often wearing a hat and false mustache to disguise the fact that he was way to young to be allowed in some of the clubs they played. At age 15 he appeared on the album Kooper Session (with Al Kooper of course) and released his first solo LP, Here Comes Shuggie Otis, the following year. A highlight of his second LP, Freedom Flight, was a song called Strawberry Letter 23, written as if it were just the latest in a series of love letters. Six years later the Brothers Johnson covered Strawberry Letter 23, taking it into the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and topping the Soul Singles chart in 1977. Otis's original version has a decidedly psychedelic tinge highlighted by some outstanding guitar work.
Artist: Uriah Heep
Title: Rain
Source: LP: The Magician's Birthday
Writer(s): Ken Hensley
Label: Mercury
Year: 1972
Uriah Heep was in full ballad mode on Rain, the last track on side one of The Musician's Birthday. The 1972 track was the first Uriah Heep recording to be completely devoid of electric guitars, although Gary Thain did add bass to the piece. Songwriter Ken Hensley plays piano on Rain, with David Byron providing the vocals.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Little Miss Lover
Source: LP: Axis: Bold As Love
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Experience Hendrix/Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
The second of two songs to use the wah-wah effect extensively on the album Axis: Bold As Love, Little Miss Lover is an example of Jimi Hendrix's funky side, a side not often heard on the three original Jimi Hendrix Experience albums.
Artist: Spirit
Title: Fresh Garbage
Source: CD: The Best Of Spirit (originally released on LP: Spirit)
Writer(s): Jay Ferguson
Label: Epic (original label: Ode)
Year: 1968
Much of the material on the first Spirit album was composed by vocalist Jay Ferguson while the band was living in a big house in California's Topanga Canyon outside of Los Angeles. During their stay there was a garbage strike, which became the inspiration for the album's opening track, Fresh Garbage. The song starts off as a fairly hard rocker and suddenly breaks into a section that is pure jazz, showcasing the group's instrumental talents, before returning to the main theme to finish out the track.The group used a similar formula on about half the tracks on the LP, giving the album and the band a distinctive sound right out of the box.
Artist: Firesign Theatre
Title: Land Of The Pharaohs
Source: CD: How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All?
Writer: Proctor/Bergman/Austin/Ossman
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1969
Undoubtably, the most popular Firesign Theatre album was How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All. Released in 1969, the album sported a cover made to look like a Soviet political poster with the caption "All Hail Marx and Lennon", accompanied by pictures of Groucho Marx and John Lennon. The album itself is best known for The Further Adventures Of Nick Danger, a mockup of a 1941 radio detective show, complete with commercials, that takes up the entire second side of the LP. The first side of the album contains the title track, which starts out as an automobile commercial but soon ends up as a trip in the car itself, accompanied by a rather odd assortment of characters to various times and places such as Land Of The Pharaohs. The group, consisting of Phil Proctor, Peter Bergman, Phil Austin and David Ossman, pioneered a type of "counter-culture comedy" that would be followed up on by such stars as Cheech and Chong, George Carlin, and the Credibility Gap (with Harry Shearer and Michael McKean), as well as the National Lampoon Radio Hour (featuring Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Christopher Guest and others).
Artist: Black Sabbath
Title: The Wizard
Source: CD: Black Sabbath
Writer: Osborne/Iommi/Butler/Ward
Label: Warner Brothers/Rhino
Year: 1970
Often cited as the first true heavy metal album, Black Sabbath's debut LP features one of my all-time favorite album covers (check out the Stuck in the Psychedelic Era Facebook page's Classic Album Covers section) as well as several outstanding tracks. One of the best of these is The Wizard, which was reportedly inspired by the Gandalf character from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings trilogy.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Rock & Roll Stew
Source: CD: Smiling Phases (originally released on LP: The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys)
Writer(s): Grech/Gordon
Label: Island
Year: 1971
Bassist Ric Grech (Family, Blind Faith) and drummer Jim Gordon (Derek and the Dominos) were only members of Traffic for one album, 1971's The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys, but their main contribution was a memorable one. Whereas most Traffic songs at this point in time were written by Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi and sung by Winwood, Rock & Roll Stew, which opens side two of the original LP, is a Grech/Gordon compostion that is sung by Capaldi rather than Winwood. Rock & Roll Stew was also the only single released from the album, and has been included on multiple greatest hits compilations such as Smiling Phases.
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Title: Since I've Been Loving You
Source: CD: Led Zeppelin III
Writer: Page/Plant/Jones
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1970
The Yardbirds were Britain's premier electric blues band, featuring the guitar work of first Eric Clapton, then Jeff Beck and finally Jimmy Page (who had already established himself as an in-demand studio guitarist by the time he joined the band). As the 60s came to a close, the band began shedding members until Page found himself the only member left. With new vocalist Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John-Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham, the group continued for a short while as the New Yardbirds before settling on a new name: Led Zeppelin. The group's repertoire was a mixture of original tunes and blues covers arranged to showcase the individual members' strengths as musicians. This mixture served as the template for the band's first two albums. By the third Led Zeppelin album the group was moving away from cover songs and from the blues in general. One notable exeception was Since I've Been Loving You, a slow original that is now considered one of the best electric blues songs ever written.
Artist: Fleetwood Mac
Title: Oh Well
Source: Mono LP: The Big Ball (originally released on LP: Then Play On)
Writer(s): Peter Green
Label: Warner Brothers (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1969
Fleetwood Mac had already established themselves as one of Britain's top up-and-coming blues bands by the time Then Play On was released in 1969. The band had just landed a deal in the US with Reprise, and Then Play On was their American debut LP. At the same time the album was released in the UK, a new non-LP single, Oh Well, appeared as well. The song was a top pick on Radio Luxembourg, the only non-BBC English language top 40 station still operating in Europe in 1969 (not counting the American Forces Network, which was only a top 40 station for an hour or two a day), and Oh Well soon shot all the way to the # 2 spot on the British charts. Meanwhile the US version of Then Play On (which had originally been issued with pretty much the same song lineup as the British version) was recalled, and a new version with Oh Well added to it was issued in its place. The song itself has two distinct parts: a fast blues-rocker sung by lead guitarist Peter Green lasting about two minutes, and a slow moody instrumental that runs about seven minutes. The original UK single featured about a minute's worth of part two tacked on to the end of the A side (with a fadeout ending), while the B side had the entire part two on it. Both sides of the single were added to the US version of the LP, which resulted in the first minute of part two repeating itself on the album.
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