Last Friday the word of the week was Weekend in celebration of the one thing that I look forward to all week long.
This week we deal with the fact that weekends never last and we are always faced with their inevitable end which is marked by…….Monday.
I hope you enjoy these songs…once again I think there is something for everyone in this post! I focused on collecting mostly live videos which I think are a lot more entertaining.
Have a great weekend!
Monday Monday – The Mamas and Papas
Rainy Days and Mondays – The Carpenters
Manic Monday – The Bangles
Is It Really Monday – David Crosby
Blue Monday – Fats Domino
Be sure to come back and visit the blog on Tuesday! The Long Song Tuesday post will be my favorite Monday song of all time.
Fun Fact: On the Bangles album, Different Light, the song Manic Monday was credited to Christopher. Do you know who really wrote it?
As promised, this week’s album of the week is the best live rock album ever recorded – At Fillmore East by the Allman Brothers band. The band formed in 1969 after the breakup of Hour Glass which had featured Duane and Greg Allman (use the search feature to find my earlier post that featured some Hour Glass songs). They released The Allman Brothers Band in 1969 and Idlewild South in 1970, both of which were great but it was their live shows with extended blues and jazz jams that really started to expand their fan base. In 1971 they recorded the live album featured in today’s post and it successfully captured the magic of their live performances. The Allman Brothers place in rock history was firmly established by this album.
Rolling Stone magazine named At Fillmore East the 49th greatest album of all time stating the following about the album:
“Rock’s greatest live double LP is an unbeatable testimony to the Allman Brothers’ improvisational skills, as well as evidence of how they connected with audiences to make jamming feel communal. “The audience would kind of play along with us,” singerorganist Gregg Allman said of the March 1971 shows documented here. “They were right on top of every single vibration coming from the stage.” The dazzling guitar team of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts was at its peak, seamlessly fusing blues and jazz in “Whipping Post” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.”
Our long song Tuesday post this week featured Stormy Monday from this album but you really can’t appreciate its true greatness without listening to it end to end. So let’s listen to the whole album…..
This is a band that was at the peak of its power and we are incredibly lucky to have this live album masterpiece to remember how great they were were. Unfortunately this version of the band would never record again. Two members of the band were lost in motorcycle accidents in the eighteen months that followed the recording of At Fillmore East. We will save that sad story for another day.
On a personal note I am forever sad that I did not get to see the Allman Brothers in their original lineup. Having said that, in a strange way I was reminded of the band at every concert that I attended to in the 70s. No matter what show I was at, someone from the audience would call out a request for Whipping Post. Maybe it was just a southern thing but it made me smile each and every time it happened. If you haven’t listened to the album yet be sure to listen for the iconic original shouted request that triggered all of the copycat requests that I heard throughout the 70s.
As promised yesterday here is my favorite cover version of Urge For Going………
By the way you are going to want to watch the pictures displayed with this song, there’s some great ones!
There is a great rock story associated with this version of the song. Here’s it is as told by Joel Bernstein in the liner notes for the CSN box set.
After the break up of CSN following the 1970 tour, David and Graham began a project on their own. They were both tremendous admirers of Joni Mitchell’s songwriting, and of course David had produced her first album. Together they decided to cover “Urge For Going” a song Joni had written in Canada in the Spring of 1966 (incidentally one of only two songs she ever wrote in standard tuning). It was intended for the pop singles market, the idea being to record two songs and release a 45. Graham’s vocals hark back to his English sixties pop style, and David is playing very clear twelve string reminiscent of the Byrds. I came to the studio with Graham just in time to witness a heated argument, as a result of which the song was never completed. The next day David went back to the studio and added vocals of his own to present Graham with a semi-finished version of the song as a peace offering. That tape is the only thing that exists of the song and that’s what you are listening to now.
Today we celebrate Tom Rush’s 1968 album, the Circle Game. Tom, although an accomplished songwriter himself, is maybe better know as an interpreter of songs by other 60’s singer/songwriters. In many cases he recorded these songs before they were released by their original authors. With the Circle Game, we highlight both Tom’s interpretive and writing skills. .
First up is the album (or at least most of it) with mostly covers and some originals!
Tin Angel (written by Joni Mitchell)
Urge For Going (written by Joni Mitchell)
Circle Game (written by Joni Mitchell)
Sunshine Sunshine (written by James Taylor)
Something In The Way She Moves (written by James Taylor)
No Regrets (written by Tom Rush)
Rockport Sunday (written by Tom Rush)
And Now……Some Of The Originals
Something In The Way She Moves (Apple Records Promo For James First Album)
Urge For Going (Joni Mitchell version)
STAY TUNED! I have a related post prepared for tomorrow…..my favorite cover version of the song Urge For Going which happens to have a really interesting back story.
One final note. The cover photograph of Tom and his girlfriend on the cover of the Circle Game album was taken by Linda Eastman who would go on to marry Paul McCartney and perform with him in Wings. Linda passed away in 1998. RIP
In case you missed it, NASA successfully landed a rover named Curiosity on Mars early this morning. I stayed up till 1:30AM to watch the landing and see the first pictures.
An absolutely amazing accomplishment…….congratulations NASA!
Adding to this festive occasion is the fact that it is time for Long Song Tuesday. How to celebrate??
Of course……how about a little Klaatu! Let’s listen…..
Its pretty funny to look back and remember that a lot of folks thought that Klaatu was the Beatles reunited under a different name. I don’t see the similarity…how about you?
Oh, one more thing…. this is my 150th post! I think that deserves a bonus Klaatu song.
As a lover of all things Canadian I should probably point out that Klaatu is a Canadian band.
I don’t know about you but weekends are what make the rest of the week bearable for me. So…..on a Friday night in North Alabama, “weekend” seems like a good choice for the Friday word of the week. Since a weekend is nothing without Saturday and Sunday I am throwing them in for no extra charge……that is just the kind of guy that I am.
I worked hard on this post and we have some great songs. There is truly something for everyone so I hope you take the time to give them a listen as you kickoff your weekend!
Oh…you want to know my favorites? Be sure to checkout:
Barry Manilow-Weekend In New England (I know, I know….but this is a great song!)
Jefferson Airplane-Won’t You Try Saturday Afternoon (from Woodstock)
Velvet Underground-Sunday Morning (great Lou Reed vocal from 1966)
Weekend
Saturday
Sunday
Tom Rush – Rockport Sunday
Be sure to let me know your favorite weekend songs!
As promised, our album of the week is Badfinger’s last album, Wish You Were Here. I am featuring it, not because it is their best album but because it is their last album with Pete.
As you listen, I want to you think about the fact that this is the third album that they cranked out in less than a year. The boys were being driven to constantly work by their management and record company commitments. All during this time, they were living in near poverty while everyone else was getting rich based on their blood, sweat, and tears. By this time, it was finally becoming clear to the boys that they were being screwed and the band was starting to come apart at the seams.
With that in mind it is amazing that the album, although not their best is actually very good and certainly worth a listen. My favorite songs are Just A Chance, Got To Get Out Of Here, and Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch/Should I Smoke. Let me know what you think.
Just A Chance
You’re So Fine
Got To Get Out Of Here
No One Knows
Dennis
In The Meantime/Some Other Time
Love Time
King of the Load
Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch/Should I Smoke
So….the moral to this story, and so many others, is that greed destroys the deserving while rewarding the financial vampires of the world. In this case, it drove two of the most talented musicians of their generations to commit suicide and destroyed one of my favorite bands of all time. I don’t know if it will ever happen, but I hope that one day Badfinger will make it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I can’t think of a better tribute to Pete and Tom.
So…while we are talking about greed, let me point out that it is alive and well here in the United States. Just take a look at the tax proposals being made by Mitt Romney and the Republicans in Congress which can be summarized is cut the taxes of the rich and pay for those cuts by milking those that work for a living. Checkout the video below for the details and vote.
My friend Gerard, who I have been lucky enough to become acquainted with through this blog, was nice enough to send me a list of “Rain” songs from his collection. Among those songs was Rain and Rails by a Dutch group called The Nits. Let’s listen…..
I had not heard of The Nits before seeing them in Gerard’s list but I have to say that I love their sound! I very much look forward to exploring more of their music…..thank you my brother for introducing me to The Nits!
I feel guilty making this Badfinger post when I don’t really have the time to do the song or the band justice. Everyone probably knows the incredible tragedies associated with the band so I will not repeat them in this post. Just thinking about it breaks my heart all over again. Maybe I will be up to saying more in a post later this week. Moving on….
Today’s long song post features Timeless, the last song on the second side of the band’s last album for Apple called Ass. The song was written by Pete Ham and he is featured on lead vocals and on an incredible lead guitar. Let’s listen…
To top things off today I have a live performance of the song from a 1974 concert in Vancouver, Canada. Good stuff…..
thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard 