Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd’s eight album, was released in March of 1973. It was an immediate hit and is still a major seller forty years later. It has sold over 50 million albums so far and was on the Billboard Album chart for 741 straight weeks! It was, is, and always will be one of the best albums of all time. Listen to Us and Them and then hang around and watch a great documentary on the making of Dark Side of the Moon.
The Making Of Dark Side Of The Moon Documentary
Although Dark Side of the Moon is the most widely remember album released in March of 1973, there were actually quite a few additional albums of note that were released that month. My overview of a few those albums is provided below. I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane.
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Johnny Winter – Still Alive and Well
Still Alive and Well was a comeback album of sorts for Johnny. It served as a notice to the world that he was still a force to be reckoned with after he recovered from an addiction to heroin and the album kicked ass. I loved the single of the same name which was written for Johnny by Rick Derringer. Rick had played with Johnny earlier in the 1970s as part of And. Let’s listen…..
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Tower of Power – Tower of Power
Tower of Power was an Oakland, California based, horn-driven, R&B band. They released their self titled first album in March of 1973. That album produced a number of hit singles and kicked off a successful career that continues today. Interesting enough, the Tower of Power horn section achieved a level of fame as a stand-alone unit by playing on a huge variety of albums from other artists in the 1970s. The song I have for you today is a great 1973 live Soul Train performance of their hit single So Very Hard To Go.
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Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy
Houses of the Holy was Led Zeppelin’s fifth album. With Led Zeppelin IV already achieving legendary status, Houses of the Holy did not disappoint. It is the source of multiple great additions to the Led Zeppelin catalog and, strangely enough, the song for which the album is named did not make it onto the album. (It finally appeared on Physical Graffiti their next album) To give you a taste of Houses of the Holy, I offer up a wonderful live performance of Song Remains The Same, the lead off track for the album.
Coming Attractions – If you liked the Song Remains The Same video above, be sure to tune in next Sunday for our Sunday Sessions #3 Post which will feature the entire concert that the above video was extracted from.
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There are a other albums from March 1973 (see below) that I have already discussed in earlier posts. If you are interested, I encourage you to use the blog search feature to find and read these earlier posts.
Todd Rundgren – A Wizard A True Star
Beck, Bogert, and Appice – Beck, Bogert, and Appice
For our second Sunday Sessions post I have this little gem from Genesis that was recorded almost forty years ago at Shepperton Studios. It captures their greatness as a prog band (under the leadership of Peter Gabriel), before they turned into a pop band (under the leadership of Phil Collins). This performance spans their best albums and is truly worth your time. Enjoy……
Watcher of the Skies (0:00)
Dancing with the Moonlit Knight (8:36)
I Know What I Like (17:40)
The Musical Box (24:00)
Supper’s Ready (37:10)
I am way behind on my Forty Years Ago Today posts. Although February 1973 was not a stellar month for album releases, there were several that I thought we should discuss. So here we go…….
Blue Oyster Cult – Tyranny and Mutation
This was the second album from BOC and, if anything, it was even stranger than their first one. The song I have for you today sounds like the Beach Boys on speed, if the Beach Boys ever decided to sing about Necromancy. I know that sounds strange but guess what…….it is strange….and I absolutely loved it then and now. Let’s listen….
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Alice Cooper – Billion Dollar Babies
Billion Dollar Babies was Alice’s sixth and most successful album, making it to the top of the album charts and producing a number of hit singles. Here is my favorite song of all time about politics. It was one of the hits from this album. Good stuff…..
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Traffic – Shootout At The Fantasy Factory
For something completely different from the two albums above, we have Traffic’s seventh album. To be honest it was a little bit of a let down after their previous masterpiece, The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys, but it still had some great songs. The title song was my favorite, let’s listen……
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Better things were coming for 1973 albums….and they were coming soon! Stay tuned ….. next week we will talk about the release of one of the best selling albums of ALL time.
10cc were one of the true pop treasures of the early 1970s but they were a band with a split personality. The band’s four members included two songwriting teams. Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman were pop songwriters and accounted for the groups hit songs. Kevin Godley and Lol Creme were the more experimental half of 10cc and produced the more arty portion of the group’s material. In today’s Two’fer Tuesday post we feature a representative song from each of these song writing teams.
I’m Not In Love (Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman)
Une Nuit A Paris (Kevin Godley and Lol Creme)
Which side of the group do you prefer? I love the pop sound of the Stewart and Gouldman songs myself. There is an interesting story about the name 10cc. Post a comment if you know the story.
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.
Today’s post is the start of a series of new Monday posts that I call Monday Music Matinee. These posts will be music documentaries that I think you might find to be interesting.
The first post in this series was inspired by David Bowie’s recently released new album, The Next Day. The album is great and I figured there was no better time than now to celebrate the early part of David’s musical career. Thanks to BBC for this great documentary on David’s Ziggy Stardust period.
As I mentioned above, David just released a new album. It is his first album in ten years and it is terrific. As a bonus, give a listen to one of the album’s best songs The Stars (Are Out Tonight)………
Welcome to Sunday Sessions, the first in a new series of Sunday posts that will feature live concerts. How better to kick off such a series than a concert that catches the Bangles at the height of their power. Think you will really like this one…..let me know what you think.
Here is the set list….I think my favorite is their great cover version of Big Star’s, September Gurls!
Intro
Let It Go
Restless
Walking Down Your Street
James
Going Down To Liverpool
He’s Got A Secret
September Gurls
If She Knew What She Wants
Return Post
Live
In A Different Light
Want You
Angels Don’t Fall In Love
Hero Takes A Fall
Manic Monday
Walk Like An Egyptian
Outro & Credits
Today’s Two’Fer Tuesday post focuses on a bass player who made a career out of replacing Randy Meisner in bands. You could call him a super-sub, but I like to think of him as an incredible bass player, singer, and songwriter that made the most of opportunities that were presented to him. He is now a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and deservedly so.
A couple of his best performances with Poco are posted below. Post a comment if you know the name of this musician. Once everyone has a chance to comment I will do another post and talk a little more him. For now, sit back and enjoy the music!
Ten Years After (with Alvin Lee) had the advantage of being showcased at Woodstock, the most famous rock festival ever (see yesterday’s post for the video). That exposure launched their career into the stratosphere. While their success was well deserved, I doubt any of us would remember them today if it wasn’t for Woodstock.
I bring this up because there are a lot of groups that are extremely talented but never break into the big time because they don’t manage to get the exposure that they deserve. Brothers and Sisters out of Austin, Texas is one of those bands. I stumbled onto their music about five years ago and fell in love with it.
Take a look at their website, http://www.thebrothersandsisters.com, for some good background information about the band.
Let me share a couple of songs from their first album….
Unfortunately the group appears to have faded away. I have been unable to find any new music from them beyond the two albums that they produced (Brothers and Sisters and Fortuneately) both of which are available for purchase on their website.
SOMETIMES TALENT IS JUST NOT ENOUGH……..
thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard 