Zager and Evans were another duo from the late 60s and early 70s. They released In The Year 2525 in 1969 and it zoomed right to the top of the US charts and stayed there for six weeks. Number one with a bullet if you will.
The level of success achieved with In The Year 2525 makes Zager and Evans the superstars of underachievement. They made it all the way to number one and then never managed to break the top 100 again. As far as I know, they are the only group to ever accomplish this feat!
Brewer and Shipley, a folk rock duo from the late 60s and early 70s, released One Toke Over The Line as a single in 1970 and it quickly climbed to number 10 on the US singles chart. If you were around back then you know exactly what the song was about and if you weren’t around then it probably doesn’t matter so I don’t intend to explain the lyrics.
I will tell you that Spiro Agnew, Vice President to Richard Nixon labeled the song as subversive which was probably the best compliment that anyone could have every paid Brewer and Shipley. Let’s listen….
It was really a nice piece of music and I expected that more hits would follow but they never did. Cue the crickets……
On a humorous note, it is funny/sad how conservatives in the US grasp onto songs that they don’t understand and try to make them mean something that is completely different from their true meaning (Think about Ronald Reagan trying to use Born In The USA as a campaign song). This was the case with One Toke Over The Line as well. 1971 a cover of the song was performed on the Lawrence Welk show. Let’s watch…..
I don’t know about you but I am laughing my ass off. A “modern spiritual” indeed!
I am going to be super busy this weekend but i have prepared some posts in advance that I think you will really like. For Saturday and Sunday I have two new posts queued up in the Underachievers series. These are the earliest examples of underachievers that I remember from my high school days.
For next Tuesday we have another combination Long Song Tuesday/Album of the Week post coming your way. You are going to love this one…these guys were punk before there was punk, heavy metal before there was heavy metal, and, at times, they were just plain strange. Any guesses….
Speaking of guesses. Listen to this song and post a comment if you know who it is. I will have a post on them coming your way soon.
Back in the day, record reviews were magical things….works of art in their own right. They didn’t limit themselves to a format of a song by song tear down of the album. Instead, these reviews discussed an album in the context of a story and somehow managed to communicate everything you needed to know about the music. Today I attempt to recreate the magic of the record review in my first review of a classic albums. I should note that this may be my last review if this one ends up being a bomb.
Today’s review is my take on what very well might be the best album ever recorded….Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan. My review takes the form of a story about the night I first listened to the album. I might have taken a few artistic liberties in the telling of the story but it is very close to what really happened. Unfortunately, it is impossible to get real songs from the album onto YouTube (licensing issues) but I have cobbled together some early recordings of the album songs, and one live performance, to make my review somewhat of a participatory event. I hope you enjoy this post! Please let me know what you think even if your feedback is negative.
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I buy the album on the way home from class. I have that buzz of anticipation that I always get when I finally get my hands on an album I have been waiting for. I make it through the small talk with my parents and head to my room in the basement.
Headphones are finally on. Album is on the turntable. Raise the tone arm and lower the needle onto the album (gently). The fuzzy sound of the needle tracking before the first song. Quickly turn out the lights and head for my bed. Tangled Up In Blue is playing even before my head finds my pillow and I am transported to another place. Join me if you would like……
The opening jangle of the guitar is quickly followed by a torrent of words that flow over me. No, on second through, those words are flowing through me, painting not a static picture but a moving picture that is better than anything that I had ever seen at a theater. Some of the scenes are incredibly sharp and focused while others are slightly fuzzy making my brain race while trying to fill in the gaps between the words. The song is ending way to soon….don’t stop I need to know more.
Back to the sound of the needle tracking between the songs. I try to catch my breath while thinking that this is the best album lead off track that I have ever heard. I prepare myself to be disappointed with the remainder of the album…they always put the best song first. There is no way the rest of the album can ever live up to the promise shown by the first track. Wait…the jangling guitars are back again and before I know it I am in the middle of another story this one about about Fate. Listen with me…..
Another movie… but I am watching this movie from the inside. I am there, by the canal, walking behind the people in the song and somehow I even manage to follow them into that strange hotel without being seen. Just like before this movie ends way too soon. Three more songs and three more movies before I hear that distinctive sound of the tone arm reaching the end of record and returning the needle to its resting position on the turntable post. I think the needle must be as exhausted as I am.
I lay there for a while in the dark, initially unable to move. My need to know what is on the other side of this record eventually compels me to get up, flip the record. lower the tone arm and start the process all over again.
A part of me is hoping that the singer will have mercy and let up on the intensity of the first side of the album. Another part of me can’t wait for the assault on my senses to continue. No need to worry, the singer was just getting started on the first side! Just when I think I can’t take anymore, the second song on the second side conjures up not just a movie but an epic tale full of mysterious characters…all related somehow but I can’t seem to grasp how. Listen with me…..
I need to understand this song more than anything I am studying in school but any hope of that is always just out of reach. But… before I can fret too much, that song is over and we are on to the remainder of the album. The album finally ends and I know I should take off the headphones and go to sleep if I am going to have any hope of making my 8:00 class the tomorrow morning. Although these thoughts floating through my brain, I know in my heart that school can wait…I get up, turn over the album and start it all over again.
I am now nearing 60 and I have repeated the above process with this album more times than I care to admit. It has never failed to pull me in and make the rest of the world just disappear while I listen Maybe the most amazing thing about the album is that no matter how many times I listen to it, the level of understanding that I crave continues to elude me. I have theories about the meaning of some of the songs, but the real artistic intent of them is always just out of reach.
Genius is a word that is used too often but I have to use it to describe this album. Genius….absolute genius!
Today we have a combined Long Song Tuesday and Album of the Week post and it is a good one.
Travel with me, if you will, back to 1976. I am on my way to one of my graduate school classes, playing my radio at full volume with my windows down. Out of the blue, the best song that I have heard in years come on the radio and I am transfixed. I listen to the end of the song (even though it makes me late to my class) and find out that the group is named Boston. I am intrigued….the band has a incredibly clean sound, kick ass guitars, and a singer that rivals the Roger Daltrey’s and Robert Plant’s of the day. The song was More Than A Feeling and we will check it out in a minute but first let’s listen to today’s long song offering from that same band.
As it turns out, the band’s clean sound and kick ass guitars were the product of it’s founder, Tom Sholz. Tom was a genius graduate of MIT, working at Polaroid as an engineer, but completely obsessed with music. When Tom wasn’t at work he was investing all of his money in a home studio and working on demos. Even before he had a band he used his home studio to record demos for most of the songs that would appear on Boston’s debut album. The singer, Brad Delp, was just a natural talent (RIP Brad!). The results were amazing. Let’s listen to a live version of the song that originally caught my attention.
I was lucky enough to catch Boston on their first headlining tour and they were amazing. I actually had a bad seat on the right hand side of the stage pretty high up. It gave me a perfect view of Tom Sholz who had what was obviously a homemade box of effect pedals that he used throughout the show. I learned later that he was indeed a “mad genius” who had designed and built his own guitar effects. I finally understood where that awesome guitar sound came from!
Lucky for you, this is also an Album of the Week post because the Boston debut album was and still is an amazing record. Without further ado, I give you Boston…..
Gerard, this Blog’s most loyal reader and commenter, posted a comment regarding Buckingham Nicks. He suggested that we checkout the Coffee House Demos which are available on CD so we all need to be on the look out for that. If you track a copy down, please let me know your thoughts about it.
I also wanted to let everyone know that there is a lot of good Buckingham Nicks music and pictures available from the following site:
To get to the good stuff click the Buckingham Nicks picture at the top of the page. Maybe the most interesting thing on the site are live tracks from the Buckingham Nicks last two concerts before they joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975. Check them out. You can’t beat the price….its free!
Stephen Stills had been a man on a mission since the mid-1960. He wanted a band! Not just any band but a band that was his and his alone. He wanted to be in control.
Buffalo Springfield held promise but it could never really be his band with that pesky Neil Young competing with him and refusing to take his direction, or anyone else’s direction for that matter. He thought he had it made with Crosby, Stills, and Nash but they were more of a vocal group than a band. Hell, he had to play almost all of the damn instruments himself on their first album. In his desperation for a real band he somehow allowed Neil Young to re-enter the picture with CSNY. It was great having Neil as a foil, and someone that was his equal for extended guitar solos, but just like with Buffalo Springfield, Neil refused to cooperate with Stephen’s ambitions. In the end, Neil treated CSN like an alternative backup band to Crazy Horse which was not to Stephen’s liking at all!
In 1971, Stephen took matters into his own hand and formed Manassas, the band of his dreams. Stephen was in charge and the band could really kick ass. This was a group that could comfortably play the country flavored rock that the California sound was famous for as well as the latin flavored music that was Stephen’s secret passion. Although Stephen was in charge, he had a pretty impressive right hand man in Chris Hillman who we have discussed at length as an original member of the Bryds and of the Flying Burrito Brothers. The other musicians were equally impressive in their own right and included Al Perkins (steel guitar), Fuzzy Samuels (bass), Paul Harris (keyboards), Dallas Taylor (drums), and Joe Lala (percussion – the foundation of the latin sound that I mentioned). It was a real band, a big band, and it would be the source of some of the best music of Stephen’s career (and Chris’ career as well). On most days I actually prefer listening to Manassas over CSN or CSNY and that says a lot. So today we are going to celebrate Manassas’ two studio albums with a lot of music….no I mean a whole lot of music. I hope you enjoy it, I am not going to bore you with a lot of my feelings. Quick introductions and then on to the music.
Manassas (double album release in 1972 – an absolute masterpiece)
First up is a song written by Stephen and Chris called Both of Us (Bound to Lose). Chris and Stephen trade of lead vocals and the harmonies are amazing. My favorite Manassas song….
Next up is my second favorite Manassas song, It Doesn’t Matter, which was also written by Stephen and Chris.
Finally, we have a beautiful song written by Stephen called Move Around. In addition to a great vocal by Stephen, this song has an extremely tasty synthesizer backing track.
So far we have highlighted some of my favorite tracks from the Manassas double album but you only have half the story. I mentioned early on that this band could kick ass and now it is time to prove it. We are lucky enough to have a full 35 minute Manassas performance from a German TV show in 1972. The set list from this show includes a number of songs from their double album: Bound to Fall, It Doesn’t Matter, Hide It So Deep, Song of Love, Rock ‘n Roll Crazies, Cuban Bluegrass, Jet Set, Jam, The Treasure. Let’s listen……
If you aren’t sold on Manassas I seriously have to question your musical taste but I am going to give you one more chance. Let’s sample some Manassas’s second (and last) studio album titled Down the Road. This album was pretty much panned by the critics but hopefully you have learned by now that I trust myself over any critic and I feel today like I did in 1973. Down the Road was a great album. Maybe not as good as their first but great in its own right.
So Many Times was easily the best song on Down the Road. Once again it was cowritten by Stephen and Chris. Chris takes the lead vocal with Stephen singing harmony and the result is amazing.
For a change of pace, let’s listen to Down the Road, the title song from the second album. Some wonderful slide guitar from Stephen on this one.
Can you tell I like Manassas??? I hope you enjoyed this extended post of their music.
To wrap things up I am sad to report that Manassas met it demise in 1973 soon after the release of their second album. The cause….Stephen was lured back to CSNY for one of their many short lived reunions. In my opinion Stephen had it all and threw it away. Maybe it was the money, maybe it was the fame, but whatever it was Stephen would never again have a band as good as Manassas or music with the same level of consistent quality. On the other hand, some of the other members of Manassas still had a role to play in the story of The Southern California Sound. We will hear about them in the final post in this long running series.
Let’s change things up a little bit today and start with the song. See what you think….
So what did you think? I love this song….whenever I hear it it screams Summer to me. So many good memories of being a kid with three months of sun, play and no school. But let’s leave memory lane behind for now and talk about Alive and Kicking.
Alive and Kicking is a New York band that originally formed in the late 60s. From everything that I have read, they were a very tight band but as we all know it takes more than being a good musician to be successful. In the case of Alive and Kicking, they were lucky enough to get signed to Roulette records which was also the home to Tommy James. Tommy, who created some of the best pop hits in the 60s with his band the Shondells, took the group under his wing; gave them the song Tighter and Tighter; and produced their album. The rest is history….talent and a little luck and you have a huge hit on your hands. Tighter and Tighter spent 16 weeks on the charts in the summer of 1970 and was a gold record for the group. Surely there was more great stuff to come from this group. Well maybe not…it’s not like Tommy James was going to abandon his career and keep writing hit songs for you!
Cue the crickets………..
Speaking of Tommy let’s leave this post on a high note and listen to one of Tommy’s greatest hits.
It’s funny how the first time you hear a song can stick in your mind forever. I first heard this song when I was at camp the summer between 10th and 11th grade. It was way past lights out and I was listening to WLS from Chicago on my little transistor radio in my upper bunk. (I had managed to sneak the radio and the original mono earphone into camp) This song came on the radio and I thought I had died and gone to heaven…I had never heard anything like it and I don’t know if I have ever heard anything as original since then. Good memories….
Fleetwood Mac was a great British blues band that was formed in 1967. While musically talented, the band was never able to translate that talent into any significant popular success. In the early 1970’s, with the addition of Bob Welch, the band moved from a blues focus to a more pop focus and it looked like they were on a path of achieving the success that it had been working on for years. Unfortunately Bob left in 1974 once again depriving the group from achieving the level of success that they deserved. (In case you missed it, Bob Welch died last week. RIP Bob!)
Between 1974 and 1974 Fleetwood Mac went through one of the most amazing transformations that has ever occurred in music history. In 1975 they released an album titled Fleetwood Mac which was a number one album in the US, produced a significant number of hit singles and sold over 5 million copies. Success was finally theirs but the story does not end there. In 1977 they released an album called Rumors which sold over 40 million albums world wide. Fleetwood Mac had become the biggest band in the world and they maintained this level of success for many years to follow, but we are going to talk about that because this post is not about Fleetwood Mac. What did he just say????
Once again, this post is not really about Fleetwood Mac……nope this post is about the group that enabled the transformation that allowed Fleetwood Mac to achieve this level of popularity. To be more specific, this post is about a duo called Buckingham Nicks.
To get you attention, here is a picture of the duo that was used on the cover of their one and only album which was cleverly titled Buckingham Nicks.
Now that I have your attention, let’s talk a little bit about the Buckingham Nicks. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were in a late 60’s group called Fritz which had some limited success as an opening act for major acts including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Credence Clearwater Revival. When Fritz broke up in 1970, Lindsey and Stevie move to LA where they eventually signed a record deal with Polydor as a duo. The Buckingham Nicks album, this week’s album of the week, was released in 1973 and was a real stunner but somehow never managed to become the breakout hit that it deserved to be, in fact the album tanked. A strange part of this story is the fact that Buckingham Nicks was a huge hit in only one plaee……Birmingham, Alabama. Their album sold like hot cakes there and they were a major concert draw. I will come back to this later in the post.
Frustrated by their lack of success the duo was considering moving to Birmingham and using it as as a base for expanding their local popularity when Mick Fleetwood heard their album. Mick immediately saw what everyone else (other than the folks in Birmingham) had missed….an incredibly deep well of talent! He asked Lindsey to join Fleetwood Mac to replace Bob Welch but Lindsey told Mick that if they wanted him they would have to take Stevie as well. The deal was quickly sealed; Buckingham Nicks was history; and Fleetwood Mac, including Lindsey and Stevie, were on their way to being superstars. (Note: To emphasize the importance of Lindsey and Stevie to Fleetwood Mac’s break through it should be noted that they wrote over half the songs on the album, including the classics Rhiannon and Monday Morning.) Enough talking….let’s listen to the Buckingham Nicks album. I think you will be impressed.
The tracks on the album are as follows:
“Crying in the Night” (Nicks) – 2:48
“Stephanie” (Buckingham) – 2:12
“Without a Leg to Stand On” (Buckingham) – 2:09
“Crystal” (Nicks) – 3:41
“Long Distance Winner” (Nicks) – 4:50
“Don’t Let Me Down Again” (Buckingham) – 3:52
“Django” (Lewis) – 1:02
“Races Are Run” (Nicks) – 4:14
“Lola (My Love)” (Buckingham) – 3:44
“Frozen Love” (Nicks, Buckingham) – 7:16
In case you are thinking about going out and buying the album, I am sad to tell you that you will not find it unless you are lucky enough to stumble onto a used copy of the original vinyl albums from 1973. The album has never been released on CD!
Before we close this post, I have a personal note to add to the Buckingham Nicks story. In 1977, I had just gotten out of Graduate school at the end of May. I rewarded myself in early June by driving to Birmingham to see Fleetwood Mac on their Rumors tour. Fleetwood Mac was incredible but the real treat was that Lindsey and Stevie played a short set of Buckingham Nicks songs as a thank you to Birmingham for being the only place where Buckingham Nicks was a success. It was a touching, heartfelt, gesture on their part and it made the concert one that I will never forget.
We are getting close to the end of The Souther California Sound series with only three posts left. I think all of the remaining ones will be interesting. Up next is lucky number 13 in the series titled The Southern California Sound #13 – Leader Of The Band…..At Last. I hope to have that post finished and posted by this time next week. Keep an eye out for it. Here is the updated series graphic that will go with the post.
In the meantime, I have some other good stuff for you including the next Album of the Week post and another Underachiever post.
Thanks for reading and listening to this blog! If you have friends that you think would be interested in what we are doing here please let them know about it!
