In 1970 the police raided the house of Owsley Stanley - famed financial backer of Blue Cheer, architect of the dread "Wall of Sound" and LSD producer of renown.  It was the third bust of note. The first, in December of 1967 found him with millions of dollars of acid. He was released on bail. Three years later, in Jnnuary, 1970, he was arrested along with the Grateful Dead in New Orleans - as related in " Truckin ".  This last arrest resulted in the revocation of his bail and he spent the next two years in prison. On his release, Stanley returns to the Dead - a band that he initially bankrolled - to run sound for them again, but all is not the same. He's no longer the player he was. The road crew has emerged as a power center. He builds the Wall of Sound but the band goes on hiatus in 1974. The Wall is dismantled and Owsley never works with them again. The whole arc of his time with the Dead inspired Steely Dan's " Kid Charlemagne " - working in his...

John referred to some of Paul's songs as "granny music", music hall influenced pieces that would fit in on the a vaudeville stage....jaunty, tap dancing, tux-and-top hat stuff.  For years this contibuted to the perception that Paul wrote the light stuff while John was the rocker. Maybe so, but "Helter Skelter" is as wild as "Revolution" and some of John's work could be pretty sappy. Looking at his output from the '70's we see that Paul wrote quite a few rockers and power pop gems that cohere together nicely....or nastily, if you prefer. Not that there is anything wrong with "Granny Music". The man turns 80 today after all. Sir Paul, happy birthday to you.

On May 9th, we caught a show by Shakey Horse at the Witch's House in Haunchyville, WI. Posted below is a soundboard recording of an excerpt from their arrangement of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition". Unfortunately, the mellotron part is inaudible (maybe unlistenable). The band's tron player, Tommy, had his amp turned up so high that they cut his volume in the mix.

Fifty five years ago today, Brian Wilson called it quits on the SMiLE project. The story goes that Brian saw himself in competition with the Beatles.  Pet Sounds  was in response to  Rubber Soul  - an album without filler. Like  Revolver  "Good Vibrations" demonstrated a mastery of the studio, and its use as an instrument in and of itself. The intended follow-up,  SMiLE , would be the same - writ large - in album form. What happens? Supposedly he hears "Strawberry Fields Forever" on the radio - in January '67-  and gasps, claiming that the Beatles "got there first." At another point, he heard that several conflagrations had broken out all over LA during recording sessions of the "Fire (Mrs. O'Leary's Cow)" from the "Elements Suite." He feared that some bad karma linked the tune and the fires.  Then there was the cat. Brian had built a sandbox in his living room. He placed his piano in it so that he could twiddle his toes ...

If you think about it....and you might not want to....you can divide the Eagles' output into two periods. The first, beginning with the release of "Take it Easy" --fifty years ago this past week--constituted their slick country-rock, adult contemporary easy listening period. That which was encapsulated in that first Greatest Hits album.  This period coincides with Bernie Leadon's tenure with the band. He had previously been in the Flying Burrito Brothers (for their second and third albums) and, before that, had played with Gene Clark in Dillard and Clark. His B-bender telecaster and banjo were, as much as anything, responsible for much of the Eagles' country sound. At the end of the One of These Nights tour, Bernie poured a beer over Glenn Frey's head and - in what would become an end of tour ritual - quit the band*. Enter Joe Walsh and so begins the second, laid back stadium rocker, period. The riffs and guitars got heavier. Joe playing featured more heavy s...

Today was Marie Prevost day.  She died of alcoholism on January 21, 1937. Her dog wouldn't stop barking...for two days...so the neighbors called the police. They found her in her apartment on the 23rd. Nick Lowe changed her last name to Provost , maybe to protect the innocent. He also changed the facts. January 23 became July 29. The two days between her demise and discovery became two or three weeks.  The alcoholism that killed her - the police found several empty bottles in the apartment - became a pill overdose or something. Most importantly, especially for the chorus, the scratches that her dog made - it seems while trying to revive her - became a tale wherein doggie feasted on her corpse.  Maybe Nick thought using her real name would be in bad taste.

Forty years ago this evening, the Jam recorded their show at the Hammersmith Palais, in London. It's a good show, three of the songs - including Eddie Floyd's " Big Bird " - ended up on Dig the New Breed . Another six tracks are from The Gift , which would be released the following March. The band is supported by horns (or a horn) and keyboards on the new tracks tracks (organ on " A Town Called Malice ").  Some of their older songs get the treatment as well.  A squeaky sax (maybe a clarinet) rounds out the sound on the bridge of " Going Underground "and the chorus of " That's Entertainment ", something would be mixed better - at least in Glasgow -during the tour supporting The Gift . Nevertheless, some good stuff.

During my commute home I caught the end of "Joanne" on radio. I don't recall which channel I had on, but it was a deep cut, slightly out of place. It gave me pause...upon returning home, I got the news. He was my favorite Monkee. The "Smart" (or smarter or - maybe - smart-ass) Monkee, he was one of two playing musicians and the only real songwriter in the band. Even early on, before the "band" was given some creative control, their albums featured some of his songs. In late '67 Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys scored a top 20 hit with his "Different Drum". This playlist includes most - if not all - of the songs he wrote, co-wrote, or sang lead on for the band. "Different Drum", while not a Monkees tune, features the Poneys backed by crack El-Lay sessioneers... kind of like when Mickey sang "Mary Mary" . Several of the songs, especially the more straightforward, country ones, remained unreleased until the 1990's ...

50 years ago today when the passenger in seat 18c, one "Dan Cooper" by his own account, leaped off the aft staircase of Northwest Airlines Flight 305 with $200,000 in ransom money.  It was - like today - Thanksgiving Eve. Roger McGuinn and his lyricist, Jacques Levy, wrote a song about it - "Bag Full of Money" - in the vein of Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd". In July of 1972, he and the remnants of the Clarence White-era Byrds recorded it. A year later Roger re-recorded it for his first solo album. Dan -or D.B. as he is commonly, mistakenly known, was never found, but in 1980 almost $6,000 in disintegrated, rubber band bound bills were, on the banks of the Columbia River near Vancouver, WA.   Maybe he survived the jump, but - landing in the river - the money was lost with most of it washing out to sea. That might explain the 1980 recovery. More likely he perished in the attempt, ended up impaled atop a tall pine. I know it's wrong, because threa...

After defining the Yardbirds' sound for a year and a half through several groundbreaking,  singles and one masterpiece of an album, Jeff Beck boarded a plane in Corpus Christi, Texas on this date in 1966, leaving the Yardbirds midway through a Dick Clark Caravan of Stars Tour. As the band finished recording Roger the Engineer in June, original bassist Paul Samwell Smith left the band. Jimmy Page was brought in first as a replacement on bass and later - after rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja shifted to bass - as co-lead guitarist. The band toured the US and then returned to London in the fall, where they recorded three songs.  The first, " Happenings Ten Years Time Ago " (with John Paul Jones on bass) had been started a few months earlier. It is a frenetic bit of freakbeat, featuring the eastern motifs, distortion, and feedback fans had come to expect of Beck. Page's playing is distinctive. Released late in October, it didn't do well on the charts. The flip side, ...

 Sixty five years ago, on October 26, the Miles Davis Quintet assembled for a recording session that yielded most of the Cookin' and Relaxin' albums and a tune apiece that appeared on the Workin' and Steamin'  discs. The other tracks on those albums were recorded in a one day session earlier that year. Four quality albums, not bad for two days of work.

What's the best concert film?  That's a tough one. It depends. Many would say Stop Making Sense , it's a good performance, but it is edited together from three separate shows. Others would say The Last Waltz , but the running order of the show has been altered, probably timed to give viewers a bathroom break during Neil Diamond's segment. Consider, however, Neil Young and Crazy Horse's Rust Never Sleeps, filmed this week (10-22) in 1978 at the Cow Palace. It is a single show. Neil has some sort of concept in mind. the Jawas from Star Wars manage the stage. There are some gigantic trunks that Neil climbs around on. I guess he is a child, or maybe an action figure to fit in with the Jawas. The title was suggested by one of the guys from Devo. We get a flashback to Woodstock. It seems to be uncut. Note that there are some slow parts as Neil washes the spit out of his harmonica by sloshing it around in a bucket of water. It sounds like the bucket is miked.  It's Nei...

The Possum would have turned 90 today.  To mark the day, I'll suggest a live album, Back in the Saddle (Live: 1979) . It is an interesting LP. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information on it. George seems to be playing at Gilley's in Houston....as Mickey gets several mentions.  It says "1979", but that may not be right. Lorrie Morgan is in the band, singing backup and the Tammy parts, but he wasn't with George until 1981-83. In 1979, however, she was married to Jones Boy Ron Gaddis, so the date could be accurate. George introduces " He Stopped Loving Her Today " as a song he always likes to play when he's in Houston, The audience responds with enthusiasm and recognition, but George cut that one in 1979 and didn't release it until 1980.  It is not a concert, per se, because the audience fades in at the beginning of most songs and then fades out at the end. The recordings seem to be genuinely live, though. There is some feedback that creeps...

Lennon's Imagine tuns 50 today. He had released " Power to the People " in March. Ringo had released " It Don't Come Easy " - produced by George - in April. Paul and Linda put out  Ram  in May. George's only studio output for 1971 was the " Bangla Desh " single in July, as he devoted most of his time first to production and then to preparations for the benefit concerts. Had the Beatles still been a band, they would have had enough material for a quality album, Ramagine . It is a solid one, with three or four tracks still garnering airplay in the classic rock format. For the sake of variety, we'll use the first take of Imagine. It has a different mix, with a more prominent harmonium. We'll also include the All Things Must Pass out take, " I Live For You ". At the risk of alienating fans of Wings Wild Life , we won't include any of its tracks here, as the album didn't come out till December. It would have been a pret...

In January of 1974, Phil Manzanera finished recording his first solo album, Diamond Head . He also got his old group, Quiet Sun, together to record Mainstream , an album of songs they'd written before he joined Roxy Music. That's a good friend for you. After the release of those two albums, Roxy put out Siren . A breakthrough single led to a successful tour of the US and, in 1976, the band went on hiatus. Bryan Ferry issued some solo albums, and -by some accounts - peddled ascots and fashion advice to New Romantics in Camden market. Phil put together a band. There was Eno - who handled some of the vocals on Diamond Head and had done some production work on Mainstream - on keyboards, guitar, and vocals; Quiet Sun bassist, Bill MacCormick; the soon to be ubiquitous Simon Phillips on drums; Francis Monkman on piano and clavinet; and Lloyd Watson on slide guitar and vocals. They played three shows. The last, at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London took place 45 years ago this evening. I...

The Rolling Stones released Tattoo You on this day in 1981.  It was their last good album. Their last great album was probably Exile , maybe Some Girls . Sandwiched between the two,  Emotional Rescue   is almost as good. It wasn't even really recorded as an album. Its core is mostly comprised of outtakes stretching back to 1972.  The band needed a new album to tour, but the Twins weren't getting along, so associate producer, Chris Kimsey, went through the archives and found the best bits for the band to finish off in 1980-81.  "Little T&A" comes from a basic track cut during the  Emotional Rescue   sessions. "Start Me Up" originated during the  Some Girls . The band worked on "Hang Fire" during both.  It's a bit like  Physical Graffiti,  except that most of that album's tracks were new, whereas most of  Tattoo  consists of outtakes. It's a bit like  Odds & Sods  except that the tunes were worked on ...

It should have been a double album. That's what they recorded for Lifehouse , Pete's sci-fi rock opera follow up to Tommy . For some reason, he couldn't get the plot or libretto right and ended up paring it down to a single album. They didn't waste a track. Like Sticky Fingers , IV, and others, it is one of those 1971 albums that dominated AOR FM into the '80s and classic rock channels to this day. While I'll usually change stations when a couple of the tunes come on....again....I still listen to some of the tacks that don't get much play anymore.  Most of the other material came out as singles, Townshend solo tracks, cuts on the Odds & Sods compilation, or bonus tracks on one of the several expanded definitive deluxe reissues of Who's Next . The version of "Greyhound Girl" is a live track included on Endless Wire. Here is Pete's demo: The songs here are not all part of the  Lifehouse plot, but they either are from those sessions or ...

George Clinton, P-Funk frontman turned 80 this week. For a while it was two bands - Parliament and Funkadelic, or maybe two facets of the same group. Funkadelic - and Parliament on their first album, Osmium (1970)  -  played a looser, rock-based, ragged, funky soul. Parliament, from 1974 on played a tighter, straight, polished funk. What follows here, is a selection from the early Funkadelic albums on Westbound. I put it together some years ago while looking for songs that reminded me of peak period Sly and the Family Stone. There really isn't much out there that sounds like this.  Missing are some of the songs with the nastier lyrics. That way I can maybe get away with playing it while Wife is in the car without having to answer the question: Honey...what are we listening to? There are a few albums that are missing from the streaming service. The first, Osmium,  was released in July of 1970. It sounds a lot like Funkadelic  and Free Your Mind ...And Your Ass Wi...

Happy 75th birthday to Linda Ronstadt.  She doesn't have the same alt-country cred as Emmylou, but she deserved it. She didn't have that direct link to Gram, but she probably did the best job of pulling off his mix of rock, country and soul. Maybe our ilk holds the Eagles against her. Maybe it's because there was nothing "alt" about her. Growing up, her music was everywhere, whether it was Dad's country station - WMAQ, or my aunt's pop station - WOKY.  Her last two "rock" albums - Mad Love and Get Closer - ventured away from the country. Perhaps too established to be new wave or power pop, she put some punchy covers by the Cretones and Billy Thermal and Elvis Costello. While her earlier cover of "Allison" featured the anodyne west coast production values of the time, two of the three covers on Mad Love  hold their own. Even her oldies covers are primarily British Invasion era pop of the type favored by the skinny tie set. Over the pas...