October, 1973 is a monster month in rock 'n' roll. I've already featured three albums from this list of twelve shown above recently and decided to mix them all together and make a big ol' playlist this week.
I always seem to surprise myself 50 years down the road, and this past week it was listening to Neil Young's Time Fades Away. This was the album that followed Harvest and it just became part of Young's succession of albums where he seemed not to care as much in making great records. Neil has a lot of personal history within this time period, so much so that this live album is not officially listed in his catalogue, and wasn't pressed as a CD until 2017. In my journey through the past this last week, I found Time Fades Away very satisfying. In a year, I'll give Neil's 1974 On The Beach, another try.
Two other gems, are Fleetwood Mac's Mystery to Me, and Dave Mason's It's Like You Never Left. I think I included every song from both albums here as the Brits just kept making great music.
Enjoy my friends, you've got a full week of listening enjoyment as I was personally having the time of my life with my girlfriend and into my first semester of college in October, 1973.
The alleged perpetrator (or "sniper") of a recent trip and fall.
Recently, I changed up my running routine. After one trip and fall, I decided to slow my running pace down. I already was a slow jogger or what I call, a "slogger," so how is that even possible?
You may ask, "Are you just walking fast?" It's actually still a jog, but before the slowdown, I noticed I was so focused on watching the ground for jutting up stones that I was losing my most cherished aspect of running, the time to space, to let my mind wander.
So I slowed my pace down to 4 miles a hour and increased my run from 5 miles to 6.25 (10K). Team Tortoise forever baby! It's great, I'm not any more tired, and burn a few more calories. Most importantly, I re-routed my course so that I'm now on the dirt trail for 5 miles and only 1.25 miles on the grassy parkway next to the speedy fossil fuel cars in my little suburbia.
You might ask, "Why would you increase time on the part of the run where you're most likely to trip on one of those 'sniper' jutting up rocks?" Well, it all has to to do with the time to space part.
The trail is located in a small canyon between two mesas that's just deep enough that for most of the 1.25 mile length, I can't see any houses. On the trail my mind just goes off in different directions as my streaming music shuffles in different artists and bands. I've written about this little trail many times here in the blog, but I continue to marvel how important this wanderful place is to me, and so close to my house.
So here's another playlist my friends created this spring while mostly spacing out.
And rest in peace Tina Turner, you inspired many people to simply be their best!
My "Fifty Years" listening dive every month never tires as I rediscover familiar albums I experienced as a young person, or today hearing albums I didn't pay much attention to when they were released.
If you know that I grew up on the central coast of California, you may also know that Loggins and Messina were a very popular band in the region and were smart to book many college campuses early on up and down the coast. I first saw them in San Luis Obispo at the Cal Poly gym and wrote about it along with friend Paul Hobbs in an earlier blog this year.
In 1973, I saw them a second time at the UCSB gym in Santa Barbara as it was a fantastic show and one of my favorite concerts of all time. The band was on fire that night and the crowd just loved every minute of it! Listening to the songs on this second L&M album not only takes me back to high school, but reinforces my lasting appreciation of their musicianship as a rock 'n' roll band.
Jim Messina is often overlooked with his singing, songwriting, guitar playing and producing skills. His early contributions to Buffalo Springfield and Poco built his reputation as a musician and then producer inside the music industry, but many fans didn't know who he was until Loggins and Messina. Even then, Messina quietly let the star shine on it's handsome frontman Kenny Loggins. As a partnership and friendship that has stood the test of time, it's safe to say that Jim Messina greatly enhanced Kenny Loggins eventual solo career, and even made it possible. It's great to see them on tour together again celebrating that 50 year partnership and I would love to certainly see them live again.
Pure Prairie League's second album, Bustin' Out came out in 1972, but really didn't catch on until 1975 when the song Amie became a huge hit for them. I purchased that album as a student at San Diego State during this time and really enjoyed the band's lead singer and songwriter, Craig Fuller. In 1975, I had no idea that Craig Fuller was actually forced to leave the band in 1973 due to the government refusing to accept his conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War. Fuller was required to perform two years of community service in a hospital in Kentucky. In 1975, Fuller received a pardon from then President Gerald Ford.
I don't know the band dynamics of Pure Prairie League, but for whatever reason Craig Fuller did not come back right when the band was just breaking famous. It just seems weird that he wouldn't return as the leading founding member of a band who just hit the big time? Fuller would go on to form the band American Flyer in 1976 and released a couple of albums with some success until they broke up in 1978. I do faintly remember Fuller making a record with Eric Kaz in 1978, Craig Fuller Eric Kaz, so it looks like I got American Flyer on my radar for some future listening.
Nevertheless, I think Bustin' Out is one of the best country rock albums ever made due in large part to Craig Fuller who is still alive today. Kind of weird nobody has done a remaster of this classic album for digital streaming services? Fuller actually has played in Pure Prairie League over the years from 1970–1973, 1985–1988, 1998–2002, 2004–2012. He even sang and played for Little Feat from 1987-93 as the lead singer in essentially Lowell George's position.
I looked up all the former and present band members of Pure Prairie League and that number was an astonishing 26 former members (including Vince Gill from 1978-82), and 5 current members (not including Fuller). I Wish I knew the whole backstory of this band and a little bit more knowledge of Craig Fuller himself? Fame is often elusive for talent such as Fuller, but maybe he just did things on his own terms and I certainly can respect that.
My surprise album of October, 1972 is Alvin Lee's Blues Band, Ten Years After and the release of their seventh studio album, Rock & Roll Music to the World. What a great rock 'n' roll album that I never heard before. I guess it's easy to appreciate so much more today as the rock 'n' roll genre is long past the center of attention in the current media. This blog exercise just reminds me, there's a ton of rock 'n' roll treasure out there on the Internet Tubes just waiting to be found!
I'll finish with more treasure already discovered years ago with Pete Townshend's, Who Came First, but have you heard all the extra tracks from the 2006 Bonus Tracks and 2018 Deluxe Edition?
Enjoy the playlist... Arrr, there's gold in there mates!
Paul and I were talking the other day on the phone and in our conversation he was wondering when Loggins & Messina were coming up in the 50 year blog series? He said something like, "Loggins & Messina were a pretty big deal for me in my senior year of high school."
That got me thinking too. Loggins & Messina's debut album, Sittin' In surely must have come out by the spring of 1972?
I get 99% of my 'this month 50 years ago' from Wikipedia. Could they have screwed up and missed such an important album? So I went to the way back on Wikipedia, and low and behold I found the album sittin' in November, (1971 in Music). Yeah guess who screwed up!
With that news, the proof-reader gal over hearing the conversation on my iPhone in speaker mode, squealed my mistake to the new owner of Monday Monday Music™some guy named Musk. Anyway, Musk fancies MMM and is attempting a hostile takeover bid estimated to be around $44 and a song to be named later.
So with the office mole's intel, the SOB fired me on the spot through one of his stupid tweets. He then cooled down and recanted, but hired Paul to be a staff writer and was told, "To watch Mr. McIntosh very carefully."
Late breaking news on the MMM takeover... It appears Musk (wasn't that the worst cologne ever from the 1970's) is now saying he won't buy the blog to drive the price down further. Stay tuned loyal readers...
So I guess, Paul takes it over from here... Actually I've been mentoring Paul, which is kind of funny because he's older than me... Anyway, I got him up to speed in how things work around here– where you basically retell stories of your childhood and youth because your long-term memory is the last thing to go. Anyway, here's Paul.
I was working after school at the Tognazzini Box Co. my senior year in high school. We blasted a big radio, living room console type, that my parents had donated when they upgraded our household system. KSEE reverberated through the echoey warehouse. I remember a recurring advertisement for a concert featuring a band I was unfamiliar with, Loggins and Messina. They played parts of 3 selections from their newly released album and 2 of the 3 had me hooked, 'Danny’s Song' and 'Nobody But You.' I got myself a ticket and accompanied byRon Zieman, Gary Hill, and Doug McIntosh went to see them play at Cal Poly in SLO. We were summarily impressed and in one combination or another, some including Paul Tognazzini, of Box Co. fame, proceeded to see them play four more times on the central coast within the next year.
left to right - Danny Walker, Sean Landers, and Paul Hobbs circa 1976 @ The Feed Store in Santa Barbara (Photo by D. McIntosh who subbed as driver and equipment guy with his green Chevy truck w/camper shell, and let Gary sleep one off in the truck bed with the guitars and amps on the return trip to Santa Maria. )
I was introduced through Gary and one of his friends to a new musical partner, Danny Walker. We got together to play music exclusively. He was a couple of years older, from a different school, and a tad intimidating. We had one goal and that was to practice up a bunch of songs and start playing out. Friendship would come later. He had an older brother who played and brought a lot of music around that Danny learned and taught me without me ever hearing the recorded versions. It was very organic, shades of the early folk scene. I was, and still am, a Beatle nut, and a big JT fan so I knew a bunch of their stuff. We also each had some songs we’d written.
Loggins and Messina provided a brand new opportunity. We were hearing a band that neither one of us had heard before. It gave us some songs to learn, we did 5 from this album alone. And, they exhibited several qualities that we, humbly, counted among our strengths.
They were essentially a duo. Both were lead singers. There were usually two distinct guitar parts to choose from. Danny would play the more difficult one. They had a folkie quality and at the same time a country feel. We did a pared down version of their songs, of course, as they had a large band and a couple of spare singers when needed. However, with the addition of a singing bass player, Sean Landers, who came along in pretty short order, we could rock a bit more and do the bigger production numbers serviceably well. Their material was very popular with our audiences so they were quite the boon to our fledgling act.
Beautiful stuff from the cub reporter there... and I didn't realize until the proof-reader gal informed me that this Musk fellow is going to pay us by the letter. (Geez, I must have used 280 characters in this blog title alone. sweet!)
Anyway, Paul was talking about the Loggins & Messina concert in the Cal Poly Gym which was my first rock 'n' roll concert! It was a great show that happened sometime in the first half of 1972 (I'm guessing, 'Steel Trap' Hobbs can't even remember).
L&M opened for The Youngbloods and blew the crowd away, we were so excited! Then, The Youngbloods come out who were on their last legs as a band. I didn't even know who Jesse Colin Young was at the time, and would become a big fan of his as my bay area SDSU roommate Mark Hunter would turn me on to him a few years later. So The Youngbloods come out very flat and definitely were not the youngblood band that night. People in the audience, including our gang of four mentioned above, left the concert in the middle of their set. I imagine Loggins & Messina weren't going to remain an opening act shortly after that.
"The album's first single release, the Caribbean-flavored Vahevala, found top 3 success on WCFL on May 18, 1972. Although the album went unnoticed by radio upon release, it eventually found success by fall 1972, particularly on college campuses where the pair toured heavily. Loggins and Messina's vocal harmonies meshed so well that what was begun as a one-off album became an entity in itself. Audiences regarded the pair as a genuine duo rather than as a solo act with a well-known producer. Instead of continuing to produce Loggins as a sole performer, they decided to record as a duo, Loggins & Messina." Wikipedia
This week I feature the entire Sittin' In album as the playlist this week. As stated, the first single from the album was the very catchy Vahevala and fifty years later it's come back to play in my KSEE radio head all week. I then added some concert videos of the same songs performed over the years including a couple songs from their 2005 performance at the wonderful Santa Barbara County Bowl.
The central coast, not a bad place for a band like Loggins and Messina to get famous and launch another duo who would play there and eventually end up in my neck of the beach, in San Diego for a year in 1975-76. Paul and Danny, now called Southwind played at a couple of Pacific Beach and Mission Beach bars during their year there. I loved this because I would sometimes go see Paul at the beach after classes at SDSU, and then attend their evening gig. I remember waking up one morning on Paul's living room floor at his rented beach house in Mission Beach, not remembering the night before. Then it dawned on me, "Shouldn't I be in my Jazz Appreciation class right now?"
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s from musical styles such as gospel, jump blues, jazz, boogie woogie, rhythm and blues, and country music. While elements of what was to become rock and roll can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s, the genre did not acquire its name until 1954.
In the earliest rock and roll styles, either the piano or saxophone was typically the lead instrument, but these instruments were generally replaced or supplemented by guitar in the middle to late 1950s. The beat is essentially a dance rhythm with an accentuated backbeat, which is almost always provided by a snare drum. Classic rock and roll is usually played with one or two electric guitars (one lead, one rhythm), a double bass (string bass) or after the mid-1950s an electric bass guitar, and a drum kit. Wikipedia
I start this installment with the question, "Would you consider Simon and Garfunkel a rock band?"
To answer that question for the purposes of this blog, I'm going to say, "Yes and no."
Yes, because the duo embodies the above definitions with their blending of folk and rock 'n' roll genres.
And no, in the sense of rock 'n' roll moving in the mid-1960's to a more electric 'rock' sound.
In the blog today, I want to emphasize bands using electric guitars, electric bass, drums, keyboardsand technology connected to large amplified speakers as the primary instruments used across a group's repertoire. Sure Simon and Garfunkel recorded songs like A Hazy Shade of Winter, but the rock-oriented beat of that song is more the exception than the rule to their catalog of music. Or, in my clumsy way of saying they had 'less rock and more roll' and boy did their music roll. (Note- Simon and Garfunkel were voted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.)
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
Okay, what about individuals like Eric Clapton who was in so many terrific bands across his career, but also did a significant number of 'solo' rock albums. Here I'm going to say, "No" just pick one or more or these bands he was in.
I want this to be a focus on a two or more member rock-oriented ensemble. Okay, what about bands that have a front person identified by name but also have that critical collaborative ensemble that makes them a rock band? Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band quickly come to mind, because all the bandmates in those two bands became famous in their own right over time, so that's a big, "Yes."
My wife Mary Kit is going to bring up Elton John again, so is Elton John a band? I'm going to say, "Yes" because I'll have hell to pay if I said "No," but I'm going to say "yes" because Elton John wasn't ever in another famous band other than his own, and Elton had a life-long collaboration with his bandmates Nigel Olson, Davey Johnston and Dee Murray (RIP) who helped create the rocking Elton John sound. How 'bout Elton John and the Jets? Anyway, I'm not going to veto solo acts from anyone's list like Dylan, Bowie, or Prince, but first think of 'electric-ensemble bands' and their fascinating band names for your favorites list this week.
So hopefully this is all clear as mud and let the proceedings begins.
In this FAV FIVE it started like the previous episodes with a pen and paper brainstorm. This one flowed like a breeze compared to the others as I nailed the first four bands out of my head and into their final ranking order on paper. Now for number five? I said this is going to be easy as I thought of band name after band name feeling a little more doubtful as the list got longer and longer. Who to choose after The Who?
Doug's brainstorm list-
1. The Beatles
2. The Rolling Stones
3. The Who
4. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Now for that last pick.
The Kinks - If I had to pick a #5 this week (1/5/22) it would be these guys.
The Beach Boys
Eagles
Fleetwood Mac
Cream
Traffic
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Creedance Clearwater Revival
The Hollies
The Band
Elton John
David Bowie
Queen
Yes
Electric Light Orchestra
The Moody Blues
The Byrds
Buffalo Springfield
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
The Allman Brothers
The Flying Burrito Brothers
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Led Zeppelin
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
Chicago
Loggins and Messina
Dire Straits
The Bangles
REM
The Black Keys
Tedeschi Trucks Band
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
The Jayhawks
Sheryl Crow
Gary Clark Jr.
I could have easily picked the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, The Byrds, CSNY or Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, but went with Loggins and Messina. Loggins and Messina was my first rock concert (Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo) in 1972 after their Sittin' In album had been released in November, 1971. They opened for The Youngbloods and blew The Youngbloods and gym audience away. (In fairness to The Youngbloods, they were actually breaking up at the time and no telling the behind the scenes circumstances.)
A couple of years later, I saw Loggins and Messina at the UCSB gym in Santa Barbara, and it is still one of the best concerts I have ever attended. I purchased all six of their studio albums from 1971-1976. Are their better bands in my list above, yes but Loggins and Messina has that special time in place element to take my #5 spot, not to mention a hell of an ensemble of supporting bandmates to see live.
