40 Year Itch: A Few We Missed

The following albums were released in July of 1972.1. John Cale The Academy In Peril   Between John Cale's solo debut Vintage Violence and his best known solo album Paris 1919 came The Academy in Peril, a mostly instrumental album that shows off Cale's classical training. That's "Legs" Larry Smith providing the voice of the television director on the tune "Legs Larry At Television Centre". Album cover by Andy Warhol.2. Johnny Nash I Can...

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Peter Murphy's All Time Top 10

From SMASH HITS JUNE 24, 1982 courtesy of Brian at Like Punk Never HappenedPeter Murphy provided this list for Smash Hits around the same time the single "Spirit" had charted. The forthcoming album The Sky's Gone Out featured covers of Brian Eno ( "Third Uncle") and, as a bonus track, David Bowie ("Ziggy Stardust") which may explain why those artists show up twice on this list.   1. DAVID BOWIE The Bewlay Brothers - The lyrics are abstract...

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40 Year Itch: Wind of Change

[Purchase]For Peter Frampton's first solo album, post Humble Pie, he managed to get guest appearances from Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Klaus Voorman and Spooky Tooth's Mick Jones. Ringo and Klaus played with Peter on Harry Nilsson's Son of Schmilsson.There's a cover of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" that doesn't work for me, but the rest of the album is full of very listenable, often lightweight rock'n'roll with mostly forgettable lyrics. (The unforgettable...

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40 Year Itch: A Shocking Rock Act in London

It happened on July 29, 1972. The world's first shock rocker ( sorry Alice Cooper), Screaming Lord Sutch,  is arrested for jumping from a bus and touring the city with four nude women. He is charged with "insulting behavior". How very British!  Sutch, whose 1970 debut album Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends topped a 1998 BBC poll as the worst album of all time despite having Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Nicky Hopkins helping him out, is trying...

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40 Year Itch: Wherever He Laid His Hat

[Album Out Of Print]In 1971, The Temptations were in turmoil. They'd already lost David Ruffin even before entering their "Psychedelic Shack" period. Then, after singing lead on the chart topping "Just My Imagination ( Running Away With Me)" in 1971, Eddie Kendricks left. Paul Williams soon followed. The remaining Temps --who had made a name for themselves with smooth ballads ( "My Girl") and pop hits ( "Ain't Too Proud To Beg") had to carry...

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40 Year Itch: Bang Bang Shoot 'Em Up Destiny

[Purchase]Shy and private, Harry Nilsson struggled with his fame. When fame came a-calling with his US/UK #1 interpretation of Badfinger's "Without You" and the Top 10 "Coconut", Nilsson's reaction was an odd one, verging on self-sabotage.He reveled in his bawdy side and displayed a sense of humor that could easily be taken the wrong way.The obvious single, "You're Breakin' My Heart", had a lot going for it. Both Ringo and George Harrison ( as "George...

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40 Year Itch: Hustlin' Times And Ghetto Streets

[Purchase]This dude is bad. And he ain't just fly. He's Super Fly.Has any album captured inner city life better than Curtis Mayfield's #1 charting soundtrack? Tho' the movie has been criticized for glorifying drug dealers, the songs on the soundtrack couldn't be more critical. In his cool falsetto Mayfield sings of  ghetto princes pushing drugs and bedding the "baddest bitches", dead and dying junkies trying to get their next fixes,and children...

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40 year Itch: Death of a Long Haired Drummer

[Purchase]"Bobby had the best groove of any drummer I've ever played with." -- Rick DerringerOn July 24, 1972 24-year old Bobby Ramirez had every reason in the world to celebrate. He and his buddy Jerry LaCroix were playing in one of the hottest bands in America: Edgar Winter's White Trash. They were touring the country with the Top 20 UK prog rockers Uriah Heep, their double live album Roadwork was on its way to gold and they'd just put on a stellar...

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40 Year Itch: And Running Like A Blue Streak

[Purchase]With Saint Dominic's Preview, recorded in San Francisco with a band that included former Beau Brummel Ron Elliot, , Van Morrison sounds like he's celebrating the past five years of his solo career. How else to explain the diversity? You have songs that will remind listeners of the jazz explorations and stream of conscious lyrics of Astral Weeks ("Listen To The Lion" and "Almost Independence Day"), the pop hit styling of  Moondance...

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40 Year Itch: The Spaceball Richochet

[Purchase]Released in the UK on the same July day as Rod Stewart's Never A Dull Moment, T. Rex's The Slider would be the band's highest charting album in the US. It came out at the height of "T. Rex-tacy" as Rolling Stone put it.In the UK the band had four straight #1 singles. Everybody loved Marc Bolan, the pint sized glam rocker with the curly hair. Both boys and girls. Bowie wrote "Lady Stardust" about him . Ringo Starr was following him around...

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40 Year Itch: Madame Onassis Got Nothing On You

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40 Year Itch: Jefferson Airplane Grounded

What? No mp3?[Purchase]By 1972 all the flowers the hippies wore in the hair or handed out to passersby had faded and gone to rot and the band that symbolized for many the flower power of the Haight-Asbury scene had also changed. Marty Balin left Jefferson Airplane after Janis Joplin's death to pursue yoga and healthier living. Drummer Spencer Dryden had been dismissed from the band. Grace Slick had nearly killed herself by crashing her car into the...

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This Man Wants To Kill Your Music Blog

            “This could put the genie back in the bottle.”                                                          ...

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Dreamin' Wild : The Emerson Brothers

[Purchase]Big dreams can begin anywhere. Even in small farm towns like Fruitland, Washington. It was here in the 70's that two brothers, Donnie and Joe Emerson, would daydream through their after school chores in the fields. They'd hurry each other up so they could get into a 16 track recording studio their father Don Emerson Sr built for them." I'm dreaming basically of thousands of people hearing what we were creating. My mind was open to all kinds...

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40 Year Itch : The Birth Of 10cc

                               L to R: Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley, Graham Gouldman, Lol Creme[Purchase]In July of 1972 British entrepreneur and recording artist Jonathan King signed songwriter extraordinaire Graham Gouldman and his friends former Mindbender Eric Stewart, Lol Creme and Kevin Godley to a long sought after record deal. The four mates had been recording together...

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40 Year Itch : Bomb Strikes The Stones Tour

Just over six weeks after the Rolling Stones began their STP tour of North America with a full blown riot in Vancouver , a bomb placed under a ramp at the Montreal Forum explodes in one of the Rolling Stones' equipment trucks. Thirty speakers are destroyed. Replacement gear is flown in from Los Angeles.Montreal radio stations receive no fewer than fifty calls from would-be bombers claiming responsibility, but it's never determined just who planted...

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40 Year Itch : When Smokey Sings ...Solo

[Purchase]On July 16, 1972 Smokey Robinson and the Miracle performed their last concert together in Washington DC. Robinson said  he was retiring from the Miracles to concentrate on his job as a Motown vice president.Robinson had first told the band  that he wanted to leave in 1969 to help his wife Claudette with the kids but after the four year old song "Tears of A Clown" hit #1 in 1970, he reconsidered.Robinson and The Miracles charted...

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40 Year Itch: 5 Big Hits That Peaked in July 1972

1. Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose: Too Late To Turn Back NowWhen I was living in Charleston, South Carolina the rumor was that a Sister Rose lived in the projects there. That might help explain why a group that scored two big hits ( The #2 "Too Late To Turn Back Now" and 1971's #3 "Treat Her Like A Lady") has a multi million lawsuit filed against Capitol Records. What isn't in dispute is how great both records sound.2. Frederick Knight: I've Been Lonely For So Long  Although he appeared in the concert film Wattstax, Frederick Knight...

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Captain Sensible's Top Ten Fave Songs

I thought I'd break out of the "40 Year Itch" cycle and do something really revolutionary. A 30 year itch post.Damned founder and solo artist Captain Sensible made this list for the July 8, 1982 issue of Smash Hits at about the same time his cover of the South Pacific tune "Happy Talk" topped the UK charts with the help of backing vocals by Dolly Mixture.The list comes courtesy of Brian at Like Punk Never Happened 1.The Electric Prunes...

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40 Year Itch : It Flies Out Of A Dream

[Purchase]On July 13, 1972 UK space rockers Hawkwind were shown on the BBC's "Top of the Pops" program performing their #3 hit "Silver Machine". The band felt ill at ease with idea of miming the song on a sound stage so the BBC recorded their July 7 concert at Dunstable Civic Hall. As you might imagine from just watching the first few seconds of the clip, the band had a difficult time not being upstaged by their six foot tall "happily bisexual"...

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40 Year Itch : No More Crying

[Purchase]   With their home becoming a hippie commune, the members of Os Novos Baianos live in a perpetual haze of marijuana smoke. Three times they had taken a shot at recording their second album something electric, something mutant, inspired by Jimi Hendrix. Three times it had fallen apart.  And then one night... There is a knock at the door.Band members assume it's the police.But instead it's... ...the legendary Joao...

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40 Year Itch: Just A Sea Of Air

[Purchase]After singing on the first three Deep Purple albums, including the hits "Hush" and "Kentucky Woman", Rod Evans was dismissed from Deep Purple who went on to record heavier, more popular ( and more plodding)  albums. After recording a solo album he founded Captain Beyond with Edgar Winter Band drummer Bobby Caldwell and two former members of Iron Buttefly: bassist Lee Dorman and guitarist Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt. Reinhardt has played...

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40 Year Itch : Can You Dig It? Yes I Can

[Purchase]One of the albums we had growing up was Chicago At Carnegie Hall, a four disc set running nearly three hours. ( And the best selling "box set" in history until Springsteen came around with his Live 75/85 album). Naturally we never listened to Carnegie Hall. Who has time to pull out four separate discs out of a box? And once you put on Side 1 haven't you really committed yourself to listening to all eight sides? You can't walk out...

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