Don’t Call Us We’ll Call You is a mini pop masterpiece. It has a rockin’ riff, a great story, and it’s funny as hell. Allmusic.com called it “bubblegum sarcasm” which perfectly captures the tone of the song. Sugarloaf as a group is very underrated and it’s hard to call out a better rock keyboard player than Jerry Corbetta from the mid-1970s (although he seldom gets the credit he deserves). Listen close to hear their use of both a Beatles and Stevie Wonder riff at different parts of the song.
Stay tuned for the next Epic Opening Riff post where we’ll feature a great guitar based Epic Opening Riff…..finally!
We had been playing somewhere in the Midwest, or the northern reaches, on our way to North or South Dakota. (Guitarist) Mike Bruce was with us. We’d been traveling all night from the Detroit area to make this gig, driving in this blinding snowstorm. It was probably 3 in the morning.
Mike decided it was time to get gas. He was slowing down to exit the interstate and spied a truck stop. We all had very long hair back then — it was the hippie era — but Skip, Mike and Bob had all stuffed their hair up in their hats. You had to be careful out on the road like that, because you’d get ostracized. When I walked in, there was this gauntlet of truckers making comments — “Is that a girl or man?” I was seething; those guys were laughing their asses off, a big funny joke.
That next night, after we played our gig — I think it was Mitchell, S.D. — Seger says, “Hey, I’ve been working on this song for a bit, I’ve got this new line for it. He played it on acoustic guitar, and there was that line: “Oh, the same old cliches / ‘Is that a woman or a man?’ ” It was “Turn the Page.”
You’ve heard the riff let’s listen to the song. This is the live version from classic 1976 live album, Live Bullet……..
Stay tuned tomorrow for a cover of Turn the Page that shocked the hell out of me when it was released.
My friend Gerard informed me this morning that JJ Cale had died and suggested that a post was called for. I couldn’t agree more!
JJ was a musician’s musician and maybe more importantly a songwriter’s songwriter. Many of you might not be familiar with his name but I can assure you that you know JJ’s music. and that is exactly the way he wanted it.
“I’m a background person,” Cale told the Chicago Sun Timesin 1990. “I’m not a household name. People have heard my music, but all my famous songs were made famous by somebody else. . . . But that was my goal.”
Let’s listen to a couple of of JJ’s songs that were made famous by other artists…….
It wouldn’t be right to not feature a JJ performance so here is a great clip of he and Eric Clapton playing the two songs above at the 2004 Crossroads Guitar Festival……good stuff!
I encourage you to dig a a little deeper and listen to some of JJ’s solo work. I think you will dig it. To get you started you can listen to to his entire 1976 album, Troubadour, below……..
In rock and pop music the phrase “rhythm section” normally refers to the drummer and bass player of a band. The rhythm section is the foundation of every band’s sound but it seldom gets the attention of the singer and/or the guitar player. If you think of the Who my guess is that you either think of Pete Townshend and/or Roger Daltrey but I don’t think there would have been a Who without their amazing rhythm section of Keith Moon and John Entwistle.
In today’s Two’Fer Tuesday post we celebrate one of the best rhythm sections in rock history, Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice. They provided the rhythm section for three major bands in the 60s and 70s, which to best of my knowledge is an accomplishment that has not been equaled by any other bass player/drummer combination.
Bogert and Appice initially got together in Vanilla Fudge, a late 1960s psychedelic group. Let’s listen to their biggest hit, a psychedelic remake of You Keep Me Hanging On.
Vanilla Fudge – You Keep Me Hanging On
As Vanilla Fudge started to break up a an idea for a new supergroup started to take shape. The new super group was going to consist of Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice from Vanilla Fudge along with Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart from the Jeff Beck Group. Unfortunately, this group never came together due to a car accident which forced Jeff out of the music scene for a year. With the collapse of the planned super group, Rod ended up joining forces with Ronnie Wood to create The Faces while Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice combined with Jim McCarthy and Rusty Day to form Cactus. Let’s listen to a song from Cactus’ debut album……..
Cactus – Let Me Swim
In 1972 Cactus was starting to breakup as was Jeff’s latest incarnation of the Jeff Beck Group. The end result, leaving out a lot of boring details, was that Beck, Bogert and Appice finally managed to join forces and form a real super group/power trio with the simple name of Beck, Bogert, and Appice or BBA for short. We have talked about BBA in earlier posts but just to refresh your memory here is one of the cuts from their one and only studio album.
Beck, Bogert, & Appice – Sweet Surrender
One rhythm section, three great bands, and a little know piece of rock history. You just never know what you will learn from this blog!
Today’s Monday Matinee offering is a classic 1969 Simon and Garfunkel TV special that had not been seen in many years until it was released in DVD format as part of a 40th Anniversary release of Bridge Over Troubled Waters. The special was originally aired on US TV at on November 30, 1969 (it was later shown on BBC which is apparently the source of this version). Here is what thevideobeat.com has to say about the special.
Controversial and rare TV show containing in-studio rehearsal and recording, road travel, political viewpoints, concert performances and video montages of key events of the 1960s.
The program was originally to be a “Bell Telephone” TV special but when they saw the finished product they said, “No!” When video images of JFK, RFK and MLK were shown while “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” played, the Bell Telephone executives commented, “They’re all democrats, why no republicans?” Simon & Garfunkel said, “Is that what you see? How about they were all assassinated?” Simon & Garfunkel met with CBS and they sympathized with the content and agreed to air the program.
Songs include: “America,” “So Long Frank Lloyd Wright,” “Bridge Over Troubled Waters,” “Scarborough Fair, ” “El Condor Pasa (If I Could),” “Punky’s Dilemma,” “Mrs. Robinson,” “Mystery Train,” “Feeling Groovy,” “The Boxer,” “Homeward Bound,” “Sounds Of Silence,” and several others.
Seeing Simon and Garfunkel at the height of their power in 1969 is definitely worth an hour of your time but this video offers much more that that. Watch it and let me know what you think……..
So…..we talked about The Lovin Spoonful last week. As it turns out, John Sebastian was also quite successful after his time with the group achieving solo success and having memorable performances at many of the great rock festivals in the late 1960s. Here is a great interview with John where he talks about the influence that the great Richie Havens had on his early career and how he ended up on stage at Woodstock as an unscheduled performer.
After listening to John’s interview, I bet you are ready to hear some music. Here are a couple of great videes of John from the Celebration at Big Sur and Woodstock rock festivals.
Celebration at Big Sur (1968) – with Stephen Stills
Richie will always be known for his opening performance at Woodstock. He was not scheduled to be the opening performer but when the first four schedule performers had trouble reaching the festival he was asked to play in order to buy time. In an epic performance he played for almost three hours straight, eventually improvising the song Freedom on the spot having played every other song that he knew. It was a wonderful performance and one that made him famous.
Here is an interview with Richie from the 40th anniversary of Woodstock.
Here is Richie with his amazing performance of Freedom at Woodstock in 1969.
Today’s Two’Fer Tuesday post celebrates the music of Johnny Rivers. I was introduced to Johnny Rivers music by an older cousin when I was around fifteen years old and I have been a fan every since. The thing that I find most amazing about his music is that he managed to make the leap from early 60’s rocker (Secret Agent Man, Maybellene, Memphis, Midnight Special, etc.) to late 1960s hippy ballad singer (Poor Side of Town, Summer Rain, Look to Your Soul, Going Back to Big Sur, etc.). I can’t think of any singer that made that transition as successfully. Let’s listen to a cut from each of these phases of Johnny’s career.
First up is a great 1966 performance by Johnny on the Hollywood Palace Tv variety show. Yes…..that is Judy Garland introducing Johnny’s performance.
Our second song is Summer Rain, which is a cut off of Johnny’s 1968 album Realization. On this album Johnny started to move his sound to a more contemporary, let’s say introspective, ballad sound that was just right for the late 1960s. The album made it into the top five and Summer Rain made it up to #14 on the singles chart. This is really good stuff that I still listen to today……
There is a lot more to Johnny’s career, so be looking for another post on him soon. Let me know if you appreciate Johnny’s music as much as I do.
This is a great BBC documentary that makes a nice companion piece for our Southern California series from last year. Here is what the BBC website has to say about it….
Documentary looking at the music and mythology of a golden era in Californian culture, and telling the story of how Los Angeles changed from a kooky backwater in the early 1960s to become the artistic and industrial hub of the American music industry by the end of the 1970s.
Alongside extensive and never before seen archive footage, the programme features comprehensive first-hand accounts of the key figures including musicians (David Crosby, Graham Nash, J. D. Souther, Bernie Leadon and Bonnie Raitt, music industry bosses (David Geffen, Jac Holzman, Ron Stone and Peter Asher) and legendary LA scenesters including Henry Diltz, Pamela Des Barres and Ned Doheny.
The film explores how the socially-conscious folk rock of young hippies with acoustic guitars was transformed into the coked-out stadium excess of the late 1970s and the biggest selling album of all time.
I think you will like this one! Let me know what you think………
This is a follow-up to our Tw0’fer Tuesday – Super-Sub post from March 12, 2013.
It was Timothy B. Schmidt that replaced Randy Meisner in Poco when Randy quit/was fired before the release of the first Poco album.
Randy went on to become a founding member of the Eagles. When Randy decided to leave the Eagles in 1977, Timothy was, once again, hired to replace him. Although Timothy produced some incredible music with Poco (refer back to the March 12, 2013 post for some examples), Poco never achieved any significant level of commercial success. Once in the Eagles, Timothy experienced major success (both commercial and financial) for the first time in his career. He co-wrote and sang lead vocals on I Can’t Tell You Why, a major hit for the Eagles from their album, The Long Run. Let’s listen….
Both Timothy and Randy were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a members of the Eagles (that’s Randy on the far right and Timothy third from the left).
I hope that one day Timothy will be inducted into the Hall of Fame a second time as a member of Poco. Although Poco’s music was never commercially successful, it was artistically ground breaking and it (along with all of it’s great members through time) is very deserving of a place in the Hall of Fame.
thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard 