Groups That Time Forgot

Forty Years Ago Today – Jan/Feb/Mar 1974 Album Releases

Posted by thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard on April 5, 2014
Posted in: Artists That Time Forgot, Be Amazed!, Canada Music Celebration, Forty Years Ago Today, Groups That Time Forgot, Rock History, The Southern California Sound, Tragic Rock Stories, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

Big Star

In 1974 I was 21, a full time college student, working three jobs, and somehow having the time of my life.  Music was a major factor in my life and, fortunately for me, there was an amazing amount of wonderful new music every month.  Let’s take a quick look at some of the key album releases during the first three months of 1974.   By the way, if you are interested, the picture above is Big Star (more about them below).

So get ready, set aside some quality time, and head back to the first quarter of 1974 with me.  Enjoy…….

January 1974 Album Releases

The Way We Were-Barbara Streisand

I’m a rocker at heart and it probably surprises many of you that I bought this album when it was released but ……great music is great music!  The only comments I have about the album are: What a voice and what an album.  It would have been easy to play the title track but here’s one that I like even better……I think you will like it……

What are you doing for this rest of your like?  I ask myself that question a lot more now that I’m older…..

Court and Spark-Joni Mitchell

Joni, part of my holy trinity of Canadian music (Neil, Joni, and Gordon), was continuing to evolve her musical style.  Court and Spark started to add in some jazz elements but lost none of it’s introspection which is what drew me to her in the first place.  I’ve learned a lot of lessons in my years and in 1974 Joni choose to write about one of them in a song…..It’s Down To You……

Everything comes and goes
Pleasure moves on too early
And trouble leaves too slow
Just when you’re thinking
You’ve finally got it made
Bad news comes knocking
At your garden gate
Knocking for you
Constant stranger
You’re a brute you’re an angel
You can crawl you can fly too
It’s down to you
It all comes down to you

Energized-Foghat

Foghat was an amazing boogie band from the 70’s and has gotten the respect that they deserve in my humble opinion.    Here is one of Foghat’s masterpieces that doesn’t get the respect it deserves……Home In My Hand.  If you were lucky enough to see them play it live back in the 70’s, as I was, I guarantee that you were entertained…….

Grevious Angel-Gram Parsons

I’ve written about the sad story of Gram Parsons as part of my Southern California Sound series.  Grevious Angel was released after Gram’s untimely death in the fall of 1973.  Brass Buttons is a classic (Poco did an amazing cover version that you might want to checkout) and you need to hear it straight from the mouth of the writer…..sing it Gram……

Sundown-Gordon Lightfoot

January 1974 was a great month for Canadian music releases with Gordon joining Joni in releasing a new album.  The title track was one of Gordon’s biggest sellers but you dig a little deeper in the album to find the real treasure……Seven Island Suite…….

Look around at the morning, guess you’re doing the best you can
Surely you know that when you go nobody gives you a hand
Think of the air you’re breathing in, think of the time you waste
Think of the right and wrong and consider the frown on your face

February 1974 Album Releases

Kiss-Kiss

Forty years after the release of their debut album, Kiss is finally going to get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame….it’s about time!  This album wasn’t a hit, the band wouldn’t really take off until their release of their double live album, but I’ve got to give it to the boys….they had ambition.  Listen to its Kissin’ Time and you will see exactly what I mean……

Badfinger-Badfinger

If you are a reader of this blog you already know that I have a soft spot in my heart for Badfinger and their incredibly sad story.  This was the group’s first album after leaving Apple records and unfortunately the end was a lot nearer than anyone foresaw.  The song I have for you today from this album was written by Pete Ham, I Miss You………

Damn it Pete….I Miss You!  RIP buddy!

Radio City-Big Star

Looking  back it seems ironic that Big Star released their second album the same month as the Badfinger release discussed above.  September Gurls was maybe the best pop song of the 70’s and to this day very few people have even heard of Big Star…..it’s a fucking tragedy ……

Of course the entire Big Star history is pretty much one big tragedy.  I’m reading a biography of Alex Chilton, the band’s lead singer, right now and I’m planning a post dedicated to Big Star’s sad story.  Stay tuned for that…..

What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits-Doobie Brothers

The Doobies were going through some significant personnel changes in 1974, and more were on the way, but they managed to put out another great album in 1974.  The song that I have for you today makes me want to be floating down a little southern river in a canoe…..laid back without a care in the world….

If you listen closely, you can appreciate some amazing steel guitar added by Skunk Baxter.  He would be an official member of the group by 1975 as the band’s sound started to change.  More about that next……

A New Life-Marshall Tucker Band

This was Marshall Tucker’s second release and it confirmed that they were  not just a one trick pony.   The title track from this album highlights everything that makes Marshall Tucker Band one of the best bands from the 70 (great vocals, amazing musicianship, and great songwriting)…..listen and be amazed……

March 1974 Album Releases

Kansas-Kansas

I’m a sucker for bands named after the states that they’re from and Kansas is one of the best examples of such a band.  This was the debut album for Kansas and if you listen to the lead off song and it immediately let’s you know that you should expect great things from this band……

Bridge Of Sighs-Robin Trower

Jimi Hendrix was gone but we still had Robin to blow our minds.  You can’t go wrong with the title track from this album….absolutely Epic……..

On The Border-Eagles

1974 found the Eagles, one of my favorite Southern California Sound bands, starting to move towards a more rock oriented sound.  You wouldn’t know it from the song I have for you today, Ol’ 55, one of the few songs on the album not written by the group.  The amazing Tom Waits wrote the song and the Eagles performance of it is something to be treasured. It brings back some amazing memories of driving back home from various girlfriends houses as the sun was coming up in my rear view mirror……

Get Your Wings-Aerosmith

On their sophomore album Aerosmith fully hit their stride.  It was an amazing album and the start of a string of releases that would make Aerosmith one of my all time favorites.  Let’s listen to Track 5 from the album, SOS (Too Bad)……in case you are wondering SOS stands for Same Old Shit…….

Somethin’s Happening-Peter Frampton

In 1974 something was at least on the verge of happening for Peter.  The release of Frampton Comes Alive in 1976 would make him a superstar but you could see it coming by listening to this 1974 release.   Let’s listen to the title song from the album, Somethin’s Happening……

Guest Post #2 (Courtesy of Gerard) – The Serenes

Posted by thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard on September 2, 2013
Posted in: Album Of The Week, Groups That Time Forgot, Guest Post, International Songs, Rock History, Should Have Made It. Tagged: . 1 Comment

Folder (4)

 

Today, while reading my morning newspaper, I discovered a band called The Serenes from a nearby place called Joure in Friesland in the northern part of Holland (where I live).  The band existed from 1988 to 1994 but I had never heard of them before reading the article from Gijsbert Kamer, a Dutch journalist (provided below with a rough translation into English).

Article

Rough Translation (With Help From Mike)

So many classic rock albums have been made ​​in the Netherlands. Albums that stand for a certain time in the rock ‘n’ roll history and always sound special.  Revolution of Q 65 (1966), Ivy Green of Ivy Green (1978), Mental Floss For the Globe by Urban Dance Squad (1989) and Palomine by Bertie Serveert (1992) all have that status.

The album Barefoot And Pregnant by The Serenes is another such album.  During the autumn of 1990, when the American bands Pixies, Sonic Youth, REM and the British band Stone Roses were making their leading guitar music (before the grunge craze), this beautiful record by the Serenes appeared from Joure.

The Serenes had two great singers/guitarists with Paul Dokter and Theo de Jong and a sound data matched the heady understated guitar pop of The Feelies but still sounded very original.

The guitarists created a wonderful guitar sound which is highlighted in the beautiful closing track Trip Down Memory Street. The sound differed from other Dutch rock bands at that time from the so-called Amsterdam School (Claw Boys Claw, Fatal Flowers).

Barefoot and Pregnant was critically acclaimed and did not go unnoticed abroad. But Dokter and de Jong parted, and worse, the album was not available for years.

The later problem has now been resolved with a wonderful reissue on Re, a sub-label of Excelsior. The reissued CD includes unreleased material from Dokter and De Jong as bonus tracks but the album itself still has much to offer even after all these years.

In addition to the Barefoot and Pregnant album mentioned in the article, the band released Back to Wonder in 1993 (by this time Paul Dokter had left the band).   Having now listened to both albums by The Serenes all I can say is …..what a great find and what beautiful music.  They sound a bit like early R.E.M. and I like them very much.  Let’s listen to some music by The Serenes and so you can see what I am talking about…….

Rebecca (You’re Gonna Be Alright) – from Barefoot and Pregnant

Sprit (Let Me Walk With You) – from Back to Wonder

Special thanks to Tony Pas for his great videos for the two songs above!

If you like what you have heard, I have a gift for you all the way from Holland.  You can listen to both albums below.  Mike tells me that these albums are not easily available in the United States so this may be your best opportunity to listen to them.

Barefoot and Pregnant (Full Album)

Back to Wonder (Full Album)

Two’fer Tuesday – Malo

Posted by thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard on July 3, 2013
Posted in: Forty Years Ago Today, Groups That Time Forgot, Rock History, Two'fer Tuesday. Tagged: . Leave a comment

Malo

I picked up Malo’s debut album as soon as it was released in 1972 because the band had a lot in common with Santana (one of my favorite bands) – both bands were out of San Francisco, both featured latin rock, and both had a lead guitarist with the last name of Santana.  Yes…..Malo’s lead guitar player (and founding member) was Jorge Santana who, as it turned out, was Carlos’ brother.  Malo’s self titled debut album was great and has continued to be a favorite of mine to this very day.  I saw them perform live in 1972 on a tour supporting their new album and they were even better live!  Unfortunately, the original group splintered after the first album.   Although versions of the band continued to perform and record, none of these versions managed to recaptured the magic from that debut album.   So…..for today’s Two’fer Tuesday post let’s travel back forty one years and enjoy a couple of great tracks from that debut album.

Suavecito

Just Say Goodbye

As always….let me know what you think!

Groups That Time Forgot – The Buckinghams

Posted by thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard on February 16, 2013
Posted in: Great Rock Stories, Groups That Time Forgot, Rock History. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Buckinghams

The Buckinghams, a group out of Chicago,  caught my attention in 1967 with the release of Kind of a Drag which was a huge hit.  The horns played a prominent role in this song and would become a staple of not only their sound but the sound of Chicago in general.   James Guercio, the producer of many of the Buckinghams early singles, went on to produce the early albums of the group Chicago which was well know for their horn driven sound.   Here is what my Lillian Roxon’s Rock Encyclopedia has to say about the history of the Buckinghams……

The Buckinghams were one of those sleek, expensively barbered, well tailored, highly commercial rock groups beloved by record companies, adored by fans, and scorned by rock critics and intellectuals.  They came out of Chicago at the height of the mid-sixties’ rock boom and moved right into a hit formula, doing everything an efficient computer might recommend and never making a mistake – as far as singles were concerned.  The albums were something else, with soon-to-be-Chicago-mentor James William Guercio taking over completely.  Guercio’s axiom seemed to be, “Be commercial with singles, experiment with albums.”  As a result, the Buckinghams unleashed a horde of schizoid long-players….catchy ditties surrounded by dross.  The band never really dissolved – it just became easier and easier to ignore as the years went by.

Enough talking…..let’s listen to some music.  First up is their huge #1 hit, Kind of a Drag, in glorious mono.  That is followed by a short entertaining mini-documentary about the song.

Kind of a Drag (mini documentary)

Don’t You Care was a follow-up to Kind of a Drag which made it up to #6 on the charts.

Our final song from The Buckinghams provides an interesting example of the experimentation introduced by the group’s producer, James Guerico.  The original single included an section with weird sound effects that I think totally destroyed the flow of the song.  Let’s listen…..

The group also hated this version of the song and many radio stations refused to play it.  An edited, more radio friendly version of the song was produced and distributed to radio stations.  Let’s listen to that version….

This edited version reached # 11 on the singles chart and was the group’s last hit.   The group split with James Guerico in mid-1968 due to creative differences, like the ones involving Susan, and their success as a group was basically over.  The group went from being named the most listened to group in the US for 1967 to being a group of “has beens” in less than a year.  This was story repeated through the 1960s.  But as Neil Young said in yesterday’s post, “It’s better to burn out than to fade away.”

Groups That Time Forgot – The Raspberries

Posted by thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard on January 18, 2013
Posted in: Groups That Time Forgot, Rock History, Tragic Rock Stories. Tagged: . Leave a comment

Raspberries2

If you have been reading this blog you probably know that I am a huge “power pop” fan.  When first heard The Raspberries (a band out of Cleveland, Ohio consisting of Eric Carmen (vocalist/guitarist/bassist), Wally Bryson (guitarist), Jim Bonfanti (drummer), and Dave Smalley (guitarist/bassist)) on my car radio in 1972 I was instantly in love.  The lead singers voice was great, the guitar sound was perfect, and the harmonies were amazing.  Who could ask for more.  Listen up and you can experience that moment I had in 1972…….

I bought the album the same day that I first heard Go All The Way and it was amazing.  As an aside, the album came with a “scratch and sniff” sticker attached to the album cover that smelled just like Raspberries.  I have had that album and the sticker for over forty years and guess what…..it still smells like Raspberries.  Amazing!

Success was ensured and it wasn’t just me that thought so.  Here is an excerpt from the May, 1972 Rolling Stone review of The Raspberries self titled first album.

Raspberries opens with the finest burst of lightweight English rock I’ve heard all year, a raunchy 16-bar guitar intro, and followed by a verse that sounds like a cross between “Reflections Of My Mind” and early Badfinger. The rest of the album is just as ephemeral, and just as good.

The funny thing is that the Raspberries aren’t English at all—they’re from Cleveland, Ohio. Just like the Wackers, though that hasn’t stopped them in cultivating a perfect three-part English group harmony, and the Raspberries go one further by even looking strikingly English. When you’re dealing with groups whose aim is to do energetic, melodic rock, nationality simply seems to be no deterrent.

What makes this album easy to recommend is the fact that there really isn’t a bad cut on it. With the exception of “Rock A Roll Mama,” an only slightly above-average rocker, and “With You In My Life” (a nice uptempo good-timey number), Raspberries is composed in toto of potential hit singles, all with excellent vocals and terrific production. Even the eight-minute piece “I Can Remember” works superbly, flowing through several sequences and ending with an irresistible chorus.

And if you’ve heard either of the Raspberries’ two singles on the radio, “Don’t Want To Say Goodbye” and the aforementioned album opener “Go All The Way,” you already know how infectious their music is. With the original material quite impressive, and the filler cuts all adequate, Raspberries is much more impressive than Badfinger’s debut album, and I find myself already looking forward to the group’s second.

Well……no matter what me and Rolling Stone thought the album topped out at #51 on the album charts.  No where near the hit it deserved to be.  Their second album, Fresh, continued to build on the best aspects of their first album.  Let’s listen to I Wanna Be With You from Fresh……

Great…..right?  Well it did a little better than the first album but still only reached #36 on the album charts.  What the heck was going on?  Here is how my old standby, Lillian Roxon’s Rock Encylopedia, explained it……

 The Raspberries died an untimely and unnecessary death in the music business, a demise their talent did not deserve.  It was all a matter of image, you see.  It just wasn’t right for any band to be so overtly UNhip.  None of these guys looked like Easy Rider outtakes when they started back in the early seventies.  They also committed the sin of writing crisp, clean singles that didn’t deal with the doings of tragic anti-heroes.  Hailing from the Cleveland area, the foursome (high school chums)demoed a few tunes that came to the attention of producer Jimmy Ienner.  Jimm brought them to Capital Records and produced their first (and subsequent) album(s).  THE RASPBERRIES was released in 1972 with some suggestion of hype.  The band’s sound was pseudo-British, the execution flawless and their success almost immediate.

The boys in the band, fairly sophisticated in their idea of what success would bring, decided to play the image “goof” schtick to the hilt. They sounded so mid-sixties, they decided to dress it as well.  It was all sort of humorous , you see.  Of course, no thought it was funny.

The band was putting out killer pop music but the majority of the music music buying public just wasn’t interested.  I don’t know that I buy that it was all in their marketing but no matter….. their lack of success was a tragedy (in my opinion).  Things did not get better.  The Raspberries third album, Side 3, showed continued artistic growth but market just wasn’t interested.    Let’s listen to Ecstasy from that album……

Side 3 only reached #136 on the charts.  The bands dreams were crashing around them and the lack of success was ripping the band apart.  Jim Bonfanti and Dave Smalley left the band at this point.  Eric Carmen and Wally Bryson decided to make one final push for success with Scott McCarl and Michael McBride replacing the departed members of the band.

This final push resulted in a fourth album, Starting Over, which to this day is one of one of the best pop albums of all time.  Let’s listen to Overnight Sensation which is one of the best singles I have ever heard…..

You might be thinking that this story is headed for a happy ending but I am sorry to tell you that is not the case.  Here is what happened as described in Eric Carmen in a 2007 interview on bullz-eye.com…

…..we did the Starting Over album, and Rolling Stone picked it as one of their seven best of the year in their annual writers and critics poll, and they picked “Overnight Sensation” as the best record of the year, and we subsequently sold the fewest number of copies of any of our records, and played every hole on the east coast for six or seven solid months of demoralizing gigging. And that was pretty much the end of it. We realized at some point that there was no way to climb out. What we had tried to do had been successful on one level, and a complete bust on another level. The rock critics got it, and the 16-year-old girls got it, but FM radio was just not about to play a band that sounded like they were making singles, and so it was kind of like beating your head against the wall at a certain point. It was time to move on and try something else.

I think the band knew that they were doomed while making the album.  Listen to The Party’s Over another song from Starting Over and I think you might agree.

The Party’s Over

Life is funny.  Sometimes your best efforts don’t pay off.  Sometimes you don’t get the rewards that you deserve.  It’s not fair but no ever promised it would be.  If you didn’t know that before, The Raspberries are living proof.  As always, let me know what you think.

Groups That Time Forgot – The Grass Roots

Posted by thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard on January 13, 2013
Posted in: Groups That Time Forgot, Rock History. Tagged: . 2 Comments

GrassRootsMain

My friend Gerard from the Netherlands never ceases to amaze me.  We me met through this blog and have discovered that our backgrounds and musical tastes are extremely similar.  A while back he sent me some articles about, and songs from, a group called The Grass Roots.

Unbeknownst to Gerard, The Grass Roots have always been one of my favorites but I have never really talked much about them because I always thought that they were a “manufactured” group along the lines of the Monkees.  The material that Gerard sent me (a summarized version is provided below) convinced me that I might have been wrong about The Grass Roots.

The name “Grass Roots” (originally spelled as “Grassroots”) was the name given by PF. Sloan and Steve Barri for an LA group. With this group they would try to jump on the folk-rock bandwagon started by the Byrds. One of their songs, “Where Were You When I Needed You”, was recorded by Sloan and Barri together with  a now forgotten line-up of session musicians. Sloan was the lead singer and played the guitar. This song was made under the name “The Grass Roots”  and  was sent as a demo to some radio stations in Los Angeles.

The response to the song was lukewarm so Sloan and Barri started to search for a new group who who would record as  “The Grass Roots”. They found a San Francisco outfit, “The Bedouins”’, and together with this group they recorded a new version of “Where Were You When I Needed You”.  They also recorded an album by the same name.  This version of the Grass Roots was moderately successful but didn’t last too long because the members of the group wanted to record more of their own material.

Here is what I found on Wikipedia to fill in the story of The Grass Roots from 1967 forward.

The group’s third — and by far most successful — incarnation was finally found in a Los Angeles band called The 13th Floor (not to be confused with the 13th Floor Elevators). This band consisted of Creed Bratton (vocals, guitar), Rick Coonce (drums, percussion), Warren Entner (vocals, guitar, keyboards), and Kenny Fukomoto (bass) and had formed only a year earlier. Entner, who had been attending film school at UCLA alongside future Doors members Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek, was drifting through Europe in the summer of 1965 singing and playing on street corners, when he met fellow busker and American Creed Bratton in Israel, where an Israeli businessman expressed interest in managing and promoting them. But the duo moved on and ended up back in LA by 1966, where they formed the 13th Floor and submitted a demo tape to Dunhill Records. After Fukomoto was suddenly drafted into the army, the group went through two replacements before finding singer/bassist Rob Grill. In 1967 the band was offered the choice to go with their own name or choose to adopt a name that had already been heard of nationwide.

In the beginning, they were one of many U.S. guitar pop/rock bands, but with the help of Barri and their other producers, they developed a unique sound for which they drew as heavily on British beat as on soul music, rhythm and blues and folk rock. Many of their recordings featured a brass section, which was a novelty in those days among American rock bands, with groups like Chicago just developing.

The bulk of the band’s material continued to be written by Dunhill Records staff (not only Sloan and Barri) and the LA studio-musicians who were part of what became known as theWrecking Crew played the music on most, if not all, of their hits.  The Grass Roots also recorded songs written by the group’s musicians, which appeared on their albums and the B-sides of many hit singles.

As The Grass Roots, they had their first Top 10 hit in the summer of 1967 with “Let’s Live for Today”, an English-language cover version of “Piangi con me”, a 1966 hit for the Anglo-Italian quartet The Rokes. “Let’s Live for Today” sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc.  With Rob Grill as lead singer, they recorded a third version of “Where Were You When I Needed You.” The band continued in a similar hit-making vein for the next five years (1967–1972).

So, inspired by Gerard, here is the summary of what I discovered.  The Grass Roots that I have always loved were initially a formed as a group called the 13th Floor (they were not a “manufactured” group after all).  The  13th Floor was presented with a unique opportunity to change its name to the The Grass Roots, a name that was already familiar to listeners based on the success achieved by the earlier version of the group that Gerard provided information on.  The 13th Floor jumped at this chance and made the best of it by producing a set of great singles in the next five years.

Enough history….let’s listen to some great songs from The Grass Roots.

First up is a song from the second incarnation of the group……Where Were You When I Needed You (note: The images shown with this song are a little confusing since they include pictures of both the second and third incarnations of the group).

Now let’s listen to some music from the third incarnation which in my opinion represents the glory years of the group with Rob Grill handling much of the lead vocals.  First up is Let’s Live For Today (1967)….

Midnight Confessions (1968)

I’d Wait A Million Years (1969)

Temptation Eyes (1971)

Live Performance of a Medley of Hits

I hope you agree with me, and Gerard, that The Grass Roots were an amazing band that needs to be remembered and celebrated.

I am sorry to report that Rob Grill passed away in 2011 at the relatively young age of 67.  This post is dedicated to him…..RIP Rob!