This has always been one of my favorite Holiday songs (or what some might consider an anti-Holiday songs). I couldn’t think of a better way to kickoff this thirty day countdown to December 25th.
Tonight’s special gift is a video of an impossibly young Simon and Garfunkel performing at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Enjoy!
Today is Thanksgiving in the United States. On this day we traditionally reflect on the things that we are thankful for and I would like to extend that tradition to this Blog. The following are some of the big things that I am thankful for today.
To express my thanks, I give you the absolute funkiest piece of work by the amazing Sly and the Family Stone, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)…..
Thanks to all of this blog’s readers for letting me be myself!
I just discovered that I never posted Album Of The Week #18 (which is is a real shame because it is one of my favorite albums ever). I can’t believe that no one noticed….. I don’t think you guys have been paying attention 🙂
So….a few weeks late, tonight I present you with David Crosby’s first (and best) solo album If Only I Could Remember My Name. Let’s listen…….
1. Music is Love
2. Cowboy Movie
3. Tamalpais High/At About 3
4. Laughing
5. What Are Their Names
6. Traction in the Rain
7. Song With No Words/Tree With No Leaves
8. Orleans
9. I’d Swear There Was Somebody Here
FYI – This is on my list of candidates for “my final playlist”
To provide you with some of the interesting details about this album and it’s recording, the Wikipedia article on the album is provided below. The collection of musicians that played on this album is amazing so pay attention to the list of players on each track.
If I Could Only Remember My Name is the debut solo album by David Crosby, released in February 1971 on Atlantic Records. One of four high-profile albums released by each member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the wake of their chart-topping Déjà Vu album, it peaked at #12 on the Billboard 200. It has been in print continuously since its initial release. The album gained new recognition in 2010 when it was listed second on the Vatican’s “Top 10 Pop Albums of All Time” as published in the official newspaper of the Holy See, L’Osservatore Romano.
A large grouping of prominent musicians from the era appear on the record, including Nash, Young, Joni Mitchell, members of the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Santana. This ad-hoc ensemble was given the moniker of “The Great Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra” by longtime Crosby associate Paul Kantner; many of the same musicians appeared on the latter’s Blows Against The Empire, recorded concurrently with Crosby’s album. The album also features the only recorded appearance of David Crosby’s reclusive brother, Ethan Crosby.
Although the album garnered its share of detractors, including Crosby’s then-manager David Geffen and influential Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau and only a lukewarm review from Lester Bangs in Rolling Stone, it was a modest commercial success, peaking at #12 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart. Two singles were taken from the album, “Music Is Love”, which was released in April 1971 and peaked at #95 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “Orleans” which was released in July 1971. The album has gained in critical appreciation since its release.
The album was released on compact disc on October 25, 1990, having been digitally remastered from the original master tapes, using the equipment and techniques of the day, by original engineer Stephen Barncard. A double-disc reissue appeared on November 6, 2006, with an audio disc remastered in HDCD, including a bonus track “Kids and Dogs,” and a second DVD Audio disc of the original album remixed for 5.1 digital Surround Sound. Reviews of the most recent reissue place the album in the same influential company as the more baroque works of Nick Drake and Fairport Convention.
Side one
- “Music Is Love” (David Crosby, Graham Nash, Neil Young) – 3:16
- Crosby – guitar, vocal; Nash – guitar, vocal; Young – guitar, bass, vibraphone, congas, vocal
- “Cowboy Movie” (Crosby) – 8:02
- Crosby – electric guitar, vocal; Jerry Garcia – electric guitar; Phil Lesh – bass; Mickey Hart – drums; Bill Kreutzmann – tambourine
- “Tamalpais High (At About 3)” (Crosby) – 3:29
- Crosby – electric guitar, vocals; Nash – vocals; Jorma Kaukonen – electric guitar; Garcia – electric guitar; Lesh – bass; Kreutzmann – drums
- “Laughing” (Crosby) – 5:20
- Crosby – guitars, vocal; Garcia – pedal steel guitar; Lesh – bass; Kreutzmann – drums; Nash, Joni Mitchell – vocals
Side two
- “What Are Their Names” (Crosby, Garcia, Lesh, Michael Shrieve, Young) – 4:09
- Crosby – electric guitar, vocal; Young – electric guitar, vocal; Garcia – electric guitar, vocal; Lesh – bass, vocal; Shrieve – drums; Nash, Mitchell, David Freiberg, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick – vocals
- “Traction in the Rain” (Crosby) – 3:40
- Crosby – guitar, vocal; Nash – vocal; Laura Allan – autoharp, vocal
- “Song With No Words (Tree With No Leaves)” (Crosby) – 5:53
- Crosby – electric guitar, vocals; Nash – vocals; Gregg Rolie – piano; Garcia – electric guitar; Kaukonen – electric guitar; Jack Casady – bass; Shrieve – drums
- “Orleans” (traditional) – 1:56
- Crosby – guitars, vocals
- “I’d Swear There Was Somebody Here” (Crosby) – 1:19
- Crosby – vocals
As usual, my online friend Gerard was the first to chime in with the right answer. Here is what Gerard said in his comment:
There are three well known musicians sitting in the making of this record/LP; Al Kooper, Todd Rindgren and last but not least George Harrison. If you listen to this number you can hear the guitar of George playing and strumming in Day After Day.
While Gerard was correct, Wikipedia identifies a few more musicians that participated and provides a few more details about George’s role in the following excerpt from its Badfinger article:
In 1971, the group rented Clearwell Castle, in Gloucestershire; living and recording there. They finished recording their third album, again with Emerick as producer, but the tapes were rejected by Apple. Harrison took over as producer in spring of 1971, but later pulled out of the project because of his Bangladesh commitments; the album was then completed by Todd Rundgren. Straight Up was released in the US in December 1971, and spawned two successful singles: “Day After Day” (Billboard number four), which sold over a million worldwide, and “Baby Blue” (US number 14). The album reached number 31 on the US charts. It included uncredited special guest appearances from Harrison, Leon Russell, and Klaus Voormann. Commenting on the recording of the dual slide guitars on “Day After Day”, Molland remembered: “Pete and I had done the backing track, and George came in the studio and asked if we’d mind if he played … It took hours, and hours, and hours, to get those two guitars in sync”.
As mentioned in the article above, George turned over production responsibilities to Todd Rundgren in order to plan his benefit concert for Bangladesh. Badfinger ended up as the backing band for the concert.
As a bonus, here is a great clip from that concert with George singing Here Comes The Sun backed by Pete Ham from Badfinger.
I never get tired of this performance!
This is the seventh in a series of posts that highlight classic rock songs featuring someone interesting sitting in on the recording session. For this series I post the song on one day and identify who is sitting in the following day. I hope you enjoy the concept and maybe learn some interesting music history in the process.
My selection for this post is Day After Day by Badfinger, from their album Straight Up. If you have been reading this blog you know that Badfinger is a favorite of mine. Listen to the song and see if you can tell who is sitting in. I will give you a couple of hints, his specific work on this song is uncredited but he played a major role on this album.
The answer will be posted tomorrow along with some additional background information.
Send in your guesses and I will identify the the first person who gives the correct answer in tomorrow’s post.
John visited Elton at the Caribou studio in Colorado during the recording of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and played guitar and sang background vocals during the recording.
Here is a little mini-documentary about John performing at Elton’s Madison Square Garden performance on Thanksgiving night 1974. You really need to watch it…that appearance ended up being John’s last performance in public. Very interesting rock history stuff. Enjoy!
This is the sixth in a series of posts that highlight classic rock songs featuring someone interesting sitting in on the recording session. For this series I post the song on one day and identify who is sitting in the following day. I hope you enjoy the concept and maybe learn some interesting music history in the process.
My selection for this post is Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. No, it isn’t the original Beatles song, it is the cover of it by Elton John. It is a great cover that pays homage to the original but introduces an interesting little reggae break in the middle. Listen to the song and see if you can tell who is sitting in. I will give you a hint, he is credited on the album as Dr. Winston O. Boogie.
The answer will be posted tomorrow along with some additional background information.
Send in your guesses and I will identify the the first person who gives the correct answer in tomorrow’s post.
This is the fifth in a series of posts that highlight classic rock songs which feature someone interesting sitting in on the recording session. For this series I post the song on one day and identify who is sitting in the following day. I hope you enjoy the concept and maybe learn some interesting music history in the process.
My selection for this post is a song called Something In The Air, a great single from Thunderclap Newman from 1969. It’s a good one! Listen to the song and see if you can tell who was sitting in. (Hint: In this case the person sitting in was doing a lot more than just sitting in on bass!)
The answer will be posted tomorrow along with some additional background information.
…….What We Are Up Against
To John McCain’s credit, he had the guts at his rallies in 2008 to correct the crazies making outrageous statements like the people in this video. You did’t hear Romney do anything of the sort.
I don’t know how to fight this kind of thing. I need to go back to the sixties and chill out…..
Good luck President Obama in tonights Debate.
Yesterday we had our 1,000th visitor to the blog. I truly appreciate everyone that reads the blog and will continue to work hard to provide you with posts that will make you want to keep coming back.
As we move forward please help by spreading the word to your friends and co-workers that enjoy music. Thanks again to everyone and here is your bonus post!
As you will remember, when we talked about Poco Randy Meisner was kicked out the band before the first Poco album was released. Randy landed on his feet and became part of Ricky Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band. This historic video highlights a couple of Ricky Nelson songs from around 1970, with Randy in the band.
We will hear a lot more about Randy in later posts in The California Sound series.
RIP Ricky
thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard 