1972 : Our Fave Nuggets

Some of our fave songs from 1972 are the ones we didn't really know until we immersed ourselves in that year.The Raspberries : Come Around and See MeArthur Lee : Everybody's Gotta LiveThe Shocking Blue : Hot Sand (live)Humble Pie : You're So Good ( To Me)Gary Glitter :  I Didn't Know I Loved YouColin Blunstone : I Don't Believe in MiraclesStackridge: Syracuse the ElephantJo Jo Gunne: Run Run RunGrin: Lost a NumberLabi Siffre : It Must Be LoveLittle...

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40 Year Itch: : 65 songs from 1972 in 15 minutes

Three musical montages from 1972.The first one focuses on the US hits.The second is more album oriented.The third is made up of the #1 hits in the UK in 1972 ( and 1973) ...

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40 Year Itch : The Top 25 Albums of 1972

So the picture above, from ultimateclassicrock.com, is probably not a very good representation of my list of fave albums from 1972. My list is based on current enthusiasm and numbers of play over the past year of this "40 Year Itch" experiment.  Click each album title for a link to the original post.    I'll do one more post featuring a zip file of some of my favorite songs posted this year so if you're new to 1001 Songs, this will...

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40 Year Itch : 1972 in Twang, Part 2

[Purchase]Several years after parting ways with Fairport Convention, Ian Matthews teamed up with his former band mate Andy Roberts to record this somber, twangy folk rock album In Search of Amelia Earhart. This is one of those "growers". Given some time, it will reveal itself as a classic. There are two songs that are written directly about the disappearance of the ill-fated pilot Amelia Earhart, whom Matthews believed may have been taken prisoner...

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40 Year Itch : 1972 in Twang, Part 1

[Purchase]Released originally as an eight-track called All American Music in 1972, this obscure recording really did become legendary when band mates Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock and Joe Ely found success later in their careers. The guy who played musical saw did not become famous...and my ears still can't get used to the sound. But More a Legend Than a Band deserves its cult status thanks to songs like "Dallas", "Tonight I Think I'm Gonna...

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40 Year Itch: Soul-Full Stew, Part 2

Some more chunks of funk from 1972. I'll have to admit at this point I'm not going to be able to get to every great album from this magnificent year. [Purchase]For their second album, the Dayton Ohio funksters knocked out a tight classic that went gold in part because of another eye-catching album ( they would get more eye-catching ) and the presence of a #1 R and B  novelty hit called "Funky Worm". Dig for the deeper cuts ( like "Laid...

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40 Year Itch: A Soul-Full Stew - Part 1

As the year comes to a close, we at 1001Songs realize there are some gaps to fill before we can declare that we have successfully scratched that 40 year itch. Today we scratch that soul itch with notable releases we didn't get to in 2012. [Purchase]Funkadelic follows up their classic 1971 album Maggot Brain with a freak funk double album. The star of Maggot Brain, scorching guitarist Eddie Hazel,  has all but disappeared by now but the expanded...

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40 Year Itch: 1972 in Country Music

1972 was the year 13-year old Tanya Tucker hit the Top 5 with "Delta Dawn". The Fan Fair debuted and Opryland USA opened in Nashville. Countrypolitan was still dominating country music radio-- string sections replacing fiddles and steel guitars. And it was a good year for cross-overs from country to the pop charts especially for newcomer Donna Fargo and Mac Davis.[Purchase]Johnny Cash is on a roll with his network TV show, White House concerts and...

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40 Year Itch: 1972 - The Best of Brasil

As spectacular a year as 1972 has been for progressive rock, glam rock, Krautrock, Italian rock n roll, soundtracks, and R and B...what truly made it an outstanding year for music is what happened in Brazil. MPB, Musica Popular Brazileira, is a blending of traditional Brazilian samba with contemporary folk, rock and jazz sounds. Its innovators, Os Novos Baianos, Jorge Ben, Chico Buraque were joined by psychedelic 60's/Tropicalia veterans Tom Ze,...

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40 Year Itch : The Jewish Elvis

[Purchase]Neil Diamond followed his chart topping hit "Song Sung Blue" with a series of ten "Hot August Night" concerts at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles ( recorded for a live album released on December 9, 2012) and then a 20-concert stand at the Winter Garden Theater in New York.  Hot August Night is considered to be the ultimate Neil Diamond album, one part sterling showman at his peak; one part pure kitsch. Neil usually toured with a small...

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40 Year Itch: Try to Run, Try to Hide

[Purchase]And so, finally  we come to 2066 And Then and their 1972 debut album Reflections On The Future.Though only together for a year, this German hard rock band produced a hard rocking psychedelic marvel that would appeal to basement stoners who favor the riff rockers ( "At My H0me") and spaced out jams ( the 15 minute title cut) of Deep Purple and Iron Butterfly. The name of the band harkens back to the Norman Conquests and the Battle of...

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Top Of The Pops 1972 Christmas Show

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40 Year Itch: A Marvel-ous Concept Album

[Purchase]40 years before Disney bought Marvel for $4 Billion, a British prog rock band called Icarus released a tribute album to the great superheroes of Marvel Comics. So you have songs called "Spiderman", "Thor", "Captain America" and "Conan The Barbarian". The lyrics are a bit over the top for the most part --though I like "Hulk"'s chorus: Hulk is on the rampage/ Doesn't understandCuz underneath that thick green hide is a very mixed up manAnd...

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40 Year Itch: Wonderful Urbanity

[Purchase]In the video below, frequent Beach Boys/Brian Wilson collaborator Van Dyke Parks doesn't really have a hell of a lot to say about his 1972 classic Discover America. So I'll try to fill in the blanks just a bit. Don't get thrown by the title. This is an album that will help you discover Trinidad. Especially the quaint , reportorial kind of folk songs made famous by calypso kings like Wilmoth Houdini and Attila the Hun. Songs like "Bing Crosby"...

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40 Year Itch: Taxes, Death and Trouble

[Purchase]The "Trouble Man" film score was one of my loveliest projects and one of the great sleepers of all our time. I'll probably be dead and gone before I get the probable acclaim from the "Trouble Man" album, musical track, that I feel I should get. And put to a symphony, if someone took my album and did a symphony on it, I think it would be quite interesting -Marvin GayeMarvin Gaye followed up his Motown masterpiece What's Going On  with...

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40 Year Itch: Coming over Charaton Bridge

[Purchase]Cult faves Gentle Giant--celebrated even today for their complex, sophisticated, eccentric recordings-- had to endure the most shaming indignity before heading out on the tour to support Octopus ( released in December of 1972). They had to open for Black Sabbath:"It was perhaps the most ridiculous pairing of groups ever in the history of show business. For the most part we got booed off the stage... At a show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los...

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"My Top Ten" By Musical Youth's Junior Waite

[Purchase]To promote the monster single "Pass The Dutchie ( On The Left Hand Side)" which went #1 in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Switzerland and #10 in the US, drummer Junior Waite gave the November 25, 1982 edition  of Smash Hits a reggae heavy Top ten list, with two shout outs to Black Uhuru. The image above comes courtesy of Brian at Like Punk Never Happen...

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40 Year Itch: Hi Hi HI Banned in the UK

[Purchase]When the BBC banned the A side " Hi Hi Hi", released on December 1st, 1972,  for its sexually suggestive lyrics "get you ready for my body gun" ( as opposed to the obvious drug reference : "we're gonna get hi hi hi"), disc jockeys flipped the 45 and played the reggae toss off "C Moon". In the UK "C Moon" became a Top 5 hit. McCartney revisited the song in concert every so often including his surprise performance at Amoeba Records in...

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