40 Year Itch: Those We Missed Sep '72

[Purchase]Joe Walsh leaves The James Gang and that band's hard rock sound behind for acoustic guitars, harmony vocals and even some experiments with an ARP Odyssey synthesizer on his first solo album Barnstorm.  "Comin' Down" is the final track on the album. This one's a grower and the best of the bunch in today's post.[Purchase]"Dinah Flo" was the single on Boz Scaggs's fifth album My Time, recorded with the mighty Muscle Shoals backing band....

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40 Year Itch : The Moonshadow Tour

After 12 months of virtual silence. 12 months without any new music. Or Shows. Or interviews. The Cat came back.   Cat Stevens ,with an 11 piece orchestra, opened his 31 date Moonshadow American tour on September 29, 1972 before a sold-out crowd of 6,500 at L.A.'s Shrine Auditorium. Ramblin' Jack Elliot opened the show followed Cat's own cartoon short, Teaser and the Firecat.   Cat's album Catch Bull At Four had been released...

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40 Year Itch: Bowie Arrives in the US of A

"When David Bowie made his Carnegie Hall debut last fall everybody from Albert Goldman to Andy Warhol was there plus a gaggle of weirdo's expecting some kind of a British Alice Cooper. That's not what they got. The concert opened as Bowie, in clockwork orange hair, came onstage amid flashing strobe lights, to the Mooged up strains of Beethoven's Ninth. From there, except for a simulated sex act with silver haired guitarist Mick Ronson, it was...

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40 Year Itch: The Death of Rory Storm

On September 27 Rory Storme, the leader of one of Liverpool's earliest beat groups, mixed alcohol and sleeping pills and never woke up. His grief stricken mother killed herself shortly after finding the body.His sisters said Rory was happy to be "the king of Liverpool" and didn't like to tour much. He didn't write many songs either which is one of the reasons his most famous drummer, Ringo Starr, decided to part ways with Rory Storm and The Hurricanes...

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40 Year Itch : Full House

[Purchase $7.99]Jive talking bad ass Peter "Gotta Get It Crazy Can't Get It Lazy" Wolf's stage persona must have - I mean MUST HAVE - taught both Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Bruce Springsteen a thing or two about crowd manipulation. Recorded over two nights at Detroit's Cinderella Ballroom, Peter Wolf keeps the party going on this short, just 33 minute album Full House ( released September 26, 1972)  All but "Hard Drivin Man" are covers. Mostly...

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40 Year Itch : Snowblind

[Buy Vol 4 for $4.99]"Yeah, the cocaine had set in. We went out to L.A. and got into a totally different lifestyle. Half the budget went on the coke and the other half went to seeing how long we could stay in the studio... We rented a house in Bel-Air and the debauchery up there was just unbelievable."-Geezer Butler, bassist, Guitar World, 2001      After three years on the road, the members of Black Sabbath needed a break so they...

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40 Year Itch: Sandy

[Purchase]"Sandy (was) my favourite singer of all the British girls that ever were" -Robert Plant The most curious thing about this beautiful album is why it didn't make Sandy Denny a star, especially as it came on the heels of start making singer-songwriter debuts from the likes of Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell and Carole King. The first reason may be that it took Sandy Denny too long to get around to making Sandy, which came out in September...

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40 Year Itch: Mary Had A Little Lamb

[Purchase]Depending on which Paul McCartney you believe, "Mary Had A Little Lamb" was either a smart-ass response to the BBC's banning his "Give Ireland Back To The Irish" or a sincere attempt to write a children's song ( as The Beatles had with "Yellow Submarine" and "All Together Now") In any case it remains one of the most annoying songs Macca ever recorded. THE FLIP WILSON SHOW JUNE 1972  The song peaked at #9 on the UK charts while...

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40 Year Itch: Save The Children

Some time between Save The Planet and Save The Whales, Jesse Jackson and his civil rights organization Operation PUSH ( People United To Serve Humanity)decided to save the children. The September 1972 concert event, named after one of Marvin Gaye's songs on his classic 1971 album What's Going On, featured a who's who of the year's biggest jazz and rhythm and blues performers: Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Bill Withers, Roberta Flack, Quincy Jones...

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40 Year Itch : 1972 in Soundtracks Part 2

A continuation of Tuesday's post celebrating the best soundtracks of 1972. [Purchase]With its depiction of man-raping hillbillies, the 1972 thriller Deliverance didn't do the Deep South any favors. There are people in Rabun County Georgia still hurting from the movie 40 years later. On the other hand, bluegrass music got a nice shot in the arm...even if the soundtrack's most famous tune was recorded without permission. Had it not been for Roberta...

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40 Year Itch : 1972 in Soundtracks Part 1

1972 was a monster year in film and movie soundtracks. Just look at some of the movies that came out that year: The Godfather,  Deliverance, Cabaret, Solaris and Aguirre Wrath of God. Porn went mainstream with both Deep Throat and Behind The Green Door among the top ten grossing films. 1972 also saw the best of the blaxploitation soundtracks Superfly as well as Marvin Gaye's Trouble Man and Bobby Womack's Across 110th Street. And who...

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40 Year Itch: Ray Charles Gets Political

1972 was an interesting year for Ray Charles. He was profiled in a New Musical Express article with the headlines "The Man Who Beat Drug Addiction And Blindness To Become A Legend". He recorded "America The Beautiful" and met with President Richard Nixon. But also, following the lead of Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield, Ray got political with the funky Quincy Jones produced single "Hey Mister". Written as a letter to a Congressman, Ray points out...

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40 Year Itch Roxy Music In Concert

On September 16, the BBC broadcast a Roxy Music concert the Paris Theatre in London  featuring, in order, the songs "The Bob (Medley)", "The Bogus Man Pt 2", "Sea Breezes", "Virginia Plain"( a new single released a month earlier that would peak at #4), "Chance Meeting" and "Re-Make/Re-Model". "Whispering Bob" Harris is the announcer between each track.Enj...

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40 Year Itch: Rocky Mountain High

[Purchase]True story. My dad and stepmother were friends with John Denver. I grew up with Rocky Mountain High so it is with some self-enforced detachment that I have to say this is probably not his best album. I'd give the nod to 1971's Poems, Prayers and Promises.Rocky Mountain High, released September 15, 1972, was Denver's first Top Ten album. And though it contains the title track,  a Top Ten hit that has become his most famous song and...

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All Time Top 10 : Les Nemes of Haircut 100

[Purchase]Bass Player Les Nemes of British popsters Haircut One Hundred ( "Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl), "Love Plus One") gave this list to Smash Hits Magazine at about the time they were scoring their 4th Top 10 UK hit in a row "Nobody's Fool". You can hear that Caribbean flavor Haircut 100 adopted from the Hi Tension track. The list comes courtesy of Brian at Like Punk Never Happened. ...

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40 Year Itch : A Moment's Answer To The Dream

[Purchase]When I was writing "Close to the Edge" With Steve (Howe), I was reading a lot about spirituality and how it stretches across the entire world. There's a connection, like all rivers lead to the same ocean, so I thought, you know, "close to the edge, down by the river". And it's like people say "Close to the Edge" is about  disaster, but no , it's about realization! We're on this journey and the only reason we live is to find the divine....

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40 Year Itch: Long Live Rock 1972 ( Part 2)

                                                  DONNY HATHAWAY LIVE[Purchase]No it's not rock but this 1972 soul release from Donny Hathaway is my favorite live album of 1972.    Recorded live at The Troubador in Hollywood and at the Bitter End in New York, Hathaway and his band ( which includes bassist Willie Weeks)...

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40 Year Itch Long Live Rock 1972 ( Part 1 )

In this era of 140 character Twitter messages, on-demand television and internet porn, it may be hard to believe people used to sit back in chairs, pop a beer can and listen to an entire albums filled with nothing but long-haired musicians jamming live to appreciative crowds. The live "Head Album", so called because in addition to beer you'd probably be feeding your head, probably peaked in 1972.Here are few notable examples.     ...

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40 Year Itch: Surrender To The Rhythm

[Purchase as a double CD with New Favourites]It's refreshing to know that as the 1970's introduced an era of side-long progressive rock symphonies and  self pitying singer songwriters, there were still bands that just wanted to make feel good three minute rock'n'roll songs about girls, girlfriends and ex girlfriends. In the UK, Brinsley Schwarz was arguably the best of the pub rockers. Led by Nick Lowe and Brinsley Schwarz, the band's second...

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All Time Top 10: David Jaymes of Modern Romance

New romantic pin up popsters Modern Romance scored their biggest selling single with "Best Years Of Our Lives" which was released shortly after bass guitarist Jaymes gave this list to Smash Hits Magazine. The list comes courtesy of Brian at Like Punk Never Happen...

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40 Year Itch All The Young Dudes

[Purchase]Mott The Hoople had practically thrown in the towel for reasons previously discussed when bassist Pete Overend got a call from David Bowie offering Mott  "Suffragette City". Hours after Overend idiotically declined, Bowie called back with a new song he had written, a glam rock anthem that would revive Mott.  The single "All The Young Dudes" was released in July of 1972 and  peaked at #3 in the UK and #37 in the...

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40 Year Itch: Give It Up

[Purchase]For more than 40 years Bonnie Raitt has been making soulful blues albums. Most people know the nine-time Grammy winner from her 1989 album Nick Of Time, which sold five million copies thanks to heavy airplay for singles like "Nick Of Time", "Have A Heart" and "Thing Called Love".But where do you go from there?Well, rock critics and longtime fans have made a strong argument for Bonnie's second album, Give It Up, released in September...

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