I’m very saddened to learn that Dr. John, the Night Tripper has died. Mac Rebennack (Dr. John) was a true original. This link connects back to a SotW I posted in 2014.
Ray Barretto was a Puerto Rican conga
drummer that released dozens of Latin albums between 1960 and his death in
2006. He was a sought after session
musician for many great names in the jazz world, including Kenny Burrell (Barretto
played on August 5th, 2017, SotW “Chitlins Con Carne”), Billy Cobham
(on his landmark Spectrum album),
Dizzy Gillespie, Yusef Lateef, Herbie Mann, Wes Montgomery, Sonny Stitt and
Weather Report.
But he also left his mark on popular music; appearing on recordings by The Bee Gees and Eddie Harris and performing as part of the Fania Allstars at the 1979 Havana Jam with the likes of Bonnie Bramlett, Rita Coolidge, Billy Joel, Kris Kristofferson, and Stephen Stills.
In his book 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, Tom Moon chose Barretto’s Barretto Power (1972) as a “must find” listen. Today’s SotW is “Oye la noticia” (“Hear the news”) from that album.
Moon says this about the song:
“Oye la noticia” …begins
as a medium-tempo dance tune, but right around the three-minute mark, Barretto
breaks into a marathon conga roll that sends an unmistakable signal: Change is
coming. The percussionists heed his call. Within seconds, they begin smacking
the rhythm around, adding inspired jabs. These don’t simply outline the beat
but pummel it into submission with phrases that require both brute strength and
tremendous dexterity.
This tune was designed to get you up, on
your feet, and dancing. So stand up and shake it!
Hot Tuna was the spin-off group from Jefferson Airplane, led by guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady in 1969. “Water Song” was on their 3rd album, Burgers (1972), that also featured (ex-Jefferson Airplane) violinist Papa John Creach, and drummer Sammy Piazza.
“Water Song” is ideally named. The shimmering acoustic guitar and rolling
drum fills evoke the image of a rippling
stream flowing through a forest of dappled light.
If you’re into the technical aspects of
guitar playing, check out this video of Kaukonen teaching how to tune your
instrument to open G and play “Water Song.”
As an instrumental, “Water Song” was very popular at WZBC in the ‘70s, used by many
of the DJs as the bed played behind their reading of the nightly live music
updates.
“Water Song” is also a fan
favorite. Hot Tuna often saves it for
the encore at their live performances, still to this day.
Back in the ‘70s, in the Disco era, one
of the most cliché’ pick-up lines was conceived – “What’s your sign?” In some ways,
it isn’t as corny as it seems today. You
see, back then there was a significant cultural meme around horoscopes and
astrology. The website at the link below
documents the era.
Needless to say, that cultural
phenomenon could not escape popular music!
“Float On,” by the soul group The Floaters, did their best to capitalize on the trend.
Each of the group’s singers states his
sign, name and what attributes he desires in women.
Aquarius and my name is Ralph
Now I like a woman who loves her freedom
Libra and my name is Charles
Now I like a woman that’s quiet
Leo and my name is Paul
You see I like all women of the world
Cancer and my name is Larry, huh
And I like a woman that loves everything and everybody
The sultry r&b music holds up but
the lyrics haven’t aged well. Yet I
still enjoy hearing it because it’s so ludicrous. It always makes me smile.
The album version extends to almost 12
minutes of slow jam sensuality. The single
was cut to 4 minutes to accommodate radio programming. In 1977 it reached #1 on US Hot Soul Singles
chart and #2 on Billboard Hot 100.
“Float On” was the subject of a parody,
“Bloat On,” by comedy team Cheech and Chong.
It was originally released as a single and later included on their Let’s Make a New Dope Deal album.
Harry Nilsson (featuring Gloria Jones and the Zodiac Singers) recorded a song called “What’s Your Sign” (1975) and Frank Zappa’s “Dancin’ Fool” (1979) is a scathing lampoon of the Disco culture and has the line “Love your nails … You must be a Libra… Your place or mine?”
Today’s SotW celebrates the 50th
anniversary of one of the strangest events ever to occur in Rock History. On May 10, 1969, The Turtles took drugs in
the Nixon White House and all hell broke loose.
The accounts of what actually happened
that day are a little sketchy. (The were
no smartphones capturing everything on video.)
I’ll do my best to tell the story as pieced together from several
sources.
Tricia Nixon, the President’s daughter,
was a big fan of The Turtles. She was
having her first party in the White House and invited The Turtles and The
Temptations to provide the entertainment.
The guests were socialites and the children of high-powered business
execs – about 450 of them!
The first incident occurred when the Secret
Service freaked out because the could hear something ticking in the equipment
cases. Turns out it was only a
metronome, but just to be safe, the agents stomped it into pieces to make sure
it wasn’t an IED. In another telling,
the SS pried the cover off of it and drowned it in water.
Next came the drugs and alcohol. Some say The Turtles snorted cocaine off the
Lincoln Desk (as Howard “Eddie” Kaylan claims in his 2013 autobiography — Shell Shocked: My Life with the Turtles, Flo
and Eddie, and Frank Zappa, etc.) and
others that they smoked some weed in the Lincoln Bedroom. Who really knows? There was also an abundance of champagne
being poured.
But one thing’s for sure – Mark “Flo” Volman,
got so wasted that he fell off the crowded stage several times.
Later, Volman tried to hit on Lucy Baines Johnson, the former President’s daughter, much to the dismay of her angry husband, Pat Nugent.
At this time The Turtles were making their underappreciated album, Turtle Soup. That’s the one that they called on The Kinks’ Ray Davies to produce. Today’s SotW is “You Don’t Have to Walk in the Rain” from Turtle Soup.
The Melbourne, Australia based Rolling
Blackouts Coastal Fever had a good 2018.
They released an album, Hope Downs,
that found its way onto many “best of” lists last year and also played to huge
American audiences at the 2018 Coachella Festival.
I like their sound. It reminds me a little of early R.E.M. Take, for instance, “Talking Straight,” today’s SotW.
Jangly guitars provide a galloping
rhythm that evokes mid-‘80s modern rock.
The vocals are like The Only Ones’ Peter Perrett. (Remember “Another Girl, Another Planet?”)
The song’s writer, singer/guitarist Joe
White, has been quoted suggesting that the track is about loneliness.
I’m hopeless, no embrace I wanna know I wanna know where the silence comes from Where space originates
“The idea in this song is that we might
be lonely, but we could be lonely together.”
Carole King and Gerry Goffin were one of
the most successful songwriting teams of the early 60s. As part of the Brill Building songwriting
stable, they worked alongside the teams of Barry Mann-Cynthia Weil and Ellie Greenwich-Jeff
Barry, and solo songwriters like Neil Diamond and Shadow Morton.
You already know most of the hits
written by Goffin-King, but I’ll list a few anyway:
Chains – Cookies (covered by The
Beatles)
Go Away Little Girl – Steve Lawrence
I’m Into Something Good –
Herman’s Hermits
Locomotion – Little Eva
One Fine Day — Chiffons
Up On the Roof – Drifters
Take Good Care of My Baby – Bobby
Vee
Will
You Still Love Me Tomorrow – Shirelles
(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural
Woman – Aretha Franklin
But by the mid-‘60s the times had changed and pop/rock music had moved on from
teen pop written by specialist songwriters to
self-contained bands that wrote their own
music with more adult themed lyrics.
By 1967, the duo reacted to these trends and embraced some of the trappings of the
hippie culture. They rejected suburban
life and wrote “Pleasant Valley Sunday” to express their new values.
Around this time they also wrote two of my favorite recordings by The Byrds – “Goin’ Back” and “Wasn’t Born to Follow.”
Both songs were on the outstanding
album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers
(1968). The drama during the recording
of The Notorious Byrd Brothers may
match the well-documented soap opera that
surrounded the production of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.
David Crosby and Michael Clarke quit the
band during the album sessions, leaving only Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman in
the band. (The recently deceased session
drummer Hal Blaine replaced Clarke on
some of the tracks.) When Crosby left,
McGuinn rehired one of the original, founding Byrds – Gene Clark – to come back
on board, but that lasted for only a matter of weeks.
Still, the album stands up today and so
do “Goin’ Back” and “Wasn’t Born to Follow.”
“Goin Back” reflects on the theme of exchanging adult responsibilities for the
innocence of childhood.
Let everyone debate the true
reality,
I’d rather see the world the way it used to be
A little bit of freedom’s all we’re lack
So catch me if you can
I’m goin’ back
In his review of “Wasn’t Born to Follow”
on AllMusic, Thomas Ward writes:
Sung by Roger McGuinn, the song is
a lovely moment in The Notorious Byrd
Brothers, and it reflects the group’s more rural influence which has dated
far less than their more psychedelic leanings. The lyrics are tremendous,
commenting on the need for escape and independence.
By 1969 Goffin and King were divorced,
but the legacy of their songwriting partnership will never be broken.
April 22, 1970, was the date of the first Earth Day. It has been celebrated every April 22nd
ever since. Long before we understood
the impact of greenhouse gasses or coined the terms “climate change” or “global
warming,” the environment was being polluted by gas-guzzling
cars using leaded petrol and factories were spewing toxic gasses and smoke into
the air.
Musicians took up the cause and wrote
songs about it. The earliest one I
recall was “Out in the Country” (written by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols) from
Three Dog Night’s album It Ain’t Easy
(1970).
About the same time, Quicksilver Messenger Service released “Fresh Air.”
“Fresh Air” was written by Dino Valenti
(aka Dino Valente, Chet Powers, and Jesse Farrow). He also wrote the hippie anthem “Get
Together” which was a major hit for Jesse Colin Young and The Youngbloods.
Throughout the years many other songs that touch the issue of the environment have
been recorded by major stars. A few
examples (and there are many more) include:
Mercy, Mercy Me (the Ecology) – Marvin
Gaye
Big Yellow Taxi – Joni Mitchell
Fall on Me – REM
My City Was Gone – The Pretenders
Beds Are Burning – Midnight Oil
Still, very recently, this issue was addressed by Parquet Courts in their song “Before the Water Gets Too High” on 2018’s Wide Awaaaaake!
State TV helps the public explain
Broadcast beamed into the dry terrain
Images of drenched survival
Without hope but soaked with pain
Consequences of reality felt
All conditions of humanity built
On the bridges
Tent villages waiting for the state to help
Before the water gets too high
This brings back the memories of the
trauma left behind in post-Katrina New
Orleans and 2017’s Maria in Puerto Rico.
Almost 50 years after the first Earth
Day there is still more work to be done!
My friend
Sean H. has been bugging me for months to feature Bloodstone’s “Natural High”
as the SotW. I’ve been trying to
persuade him to write it up himself as a guest contributor, but he hasn’t.
Well a few weeks ago the song came up on one of my playlists and it occurred to me that I really like it! So here you go Sean – this one’s for you.
“Natural High” is the perfect mid-‘70s soul ballad. What does that mean? It has sweet, falsetto vocals and harmonies,
and a sexy, slow jam backing. It also
has a short, simple, but jazzy guitar solo about 2:30 in. It reached #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973.
Demonstrating his impeccably good taste, Quentin Tarantino selected it for a scene in his blaxploitation influenced film Jackie Brown.
Bloodstone entered the blaxploitation
field themselves in 1975 through a self-financed film that they cast themselves
in — Train Ride to Hollywood. Check out the zany trailer.
Greta Van Fleet is a band out of
Michigan that can’t seem to escape comparisons to Led Zeppelin. That should make them very popular with the
legions of Zep fans.
They have a pretty slight discography – so far consisting of two Eps released in 2017 and their late 2018, full-length debut, Anthem of the Peaceful Army.
So, what’s all the fuss about? Take a listen to today’s SotW, “Anthem.”
“Anthem” focuses on acoustic guitar
(Supertramp’s “Give a Little?), electric slide guitar and percussion, leaving
the “heavy” aside. It’s catchy! The lyrics are sweet but their “peace and
love” hippie idealism may be just a
little too hokey. The song climaxes with
the final chorus:
And every glow
In the twilight knows
That the world is only what the world is made of
Just you and me
Can agree to disagree
That the world is only what the
world is made of
I find myself on the fence regarding
this group. I like their approach but
find the vocals a little too
screechy. But none other than Robert
Plant has given GVF his blessing. In an
interview with Australia’s Network Ten, Plant said the band “are Led Zeppelin
1” and also described frontman Josh
Kiszka as “a beautiful little singer.”
That’s a pretty high endorsement from someone that isn’t normally quick
to hand out compliments.
