In 1974, original drummer/vocalist Peter Hoorlebeke (Rivera) left Rare Earth to record with his new group H.U.B. Gil Bridges and the remainder of the band used session musicians to record two more albums, “Back To Earth” and “Midnight Lady” , before the Rare Earth label was closed down in 1977.
Follow up to "Back to Earth" and featuring Jerry La Croix on vocals, this is actually a pleasant listen. With Norman Whitfield back in the Producer's seat he's used his own songs rather than the band's.The only non-Whitfield song, "Its A Natural" penned by La Croix, which opens the album, is a commendable effort.
In 1978 Rare Earth (with the 1972 line-up) was back in the studio to record “Band Together”. The first single was “Warm Ride”. The song had been written by the Bee Gees who were the hottest act in the world following the success of Saturday Night Fever and its mega-hit soundtrack. “Warm Ride” was Rare Earth’s first Top 40 single in six years and would be their final hit.
Tracks Midnight Lady 1976
1. It's A Natural (Jerry LaCroix) - 4:00
2. Finger Lickin' Good (Norman Whitefield) - 3:25
3. He Who Picks A Rose (Norman Whitefield, Eddie Holland, Earl Smiley) - 4:50
4. Do It Right (Norman Whitefield) - 6:26
5. Ain't No Sunshine Since You've Been Gone (Cornelius Grant, Norman Whitfield, Sylvia Moy) - 3:00
6. Midnight Lady (Norman Whitefield) - 4:23
7. Wine Women And Song (Norman Whitefield) - 10:51 Band Together 1978
8. Warm Ride (Barry Gibb, Maurice Gibb, Robin Gibb) - 4:01
9. You (Ivy Hunter, Jack Goga, Jeffrey Bowen) - 3:31
10.Love Is What You Get (Bob Siller, Chuck Smith, Don Dunn) - 2:52
11.Love Do Me Right (Lenny Macaluso) - 4:27
12.Dreamer (Jerry Zaremba) - 4:08
13.Maybe The Magic (Curly Smith, Mark Olson) - 3:04
14.Love Music (Brian Potter, Dennis Lambert) - 4:41
15.Rock 'N' Roll Man (John Ryan, Mark Olson, Peter Hoorelbeke, Ray Monette) - 3:58
16.Mota Molata (John Ryan, Mark Olson, Peter Hoorelbeke, Ray Monette) - 4:28
Inextricably linked with the US counter-culture of the late 1960s and early 70s courtesy of their drug referencing hit single One Toke Over The Line (which incurred the personal wrath of the hippie hating president Richard M Nixon, indeed), folk / rock vocal duo Mike Brewer and Tom Shipley specialized in the kind of thoughtful, melodic and appealing music that proved both a complement and an antidote to the harsher, more electric sound of contemporary hard rock bands of the era. Their close harmony sound had its antecedents in the work of the likes of Simon and Garfunkel, of course, or more relevantly, Crosby, Stills and Nash and there were plenty of other similar duos that pursued a broadly similar sound and style - Cashman and West, Seals and Crofts, Batdorf and Rodney, for example, but Brewer and Shipley were a marked cut above the smooth strummers and moustachioed harmonists.
Their sound had (and still has, because they're still regularly gigging in the USA) a greater sense of the wide open spaces of their US heartland home base; it's no surprise that one of their albums was called Rural Space, as their music is suffused with that kind of ambience. The underlying lyrical themes of the duo were recurrent motifs of personal freedom and an opportunity to pursue an alternative American Dream to that of the vast majority of the US middle class, as well as orthodox songs of love. Weeds, the first of the four albums featured here, was recorded in 1969, and was the duos' second album.
Their debut album Down In LA, had been cut for the A and M label in Los Angeles the previous year. They'd been playing the West Coast folk and coffee bar circuit, and the original plan was for them to make a living as writers as well as performers. They had moderate success in this regard; Chicago psychedelic weirdoes HP Lovecraft had cut a version of their Keeper Of The Keys, sung in a bizarre, semi-operatic style, on their HP Lovecraft II album. Down In LA was pleasant enough, cut with a bunch of LA session luminaries such as Leon Russell and Jim Messina, but it didn't make much headway, commercially, and anyway, Brewer and Shipley didn't care much for the Los Angeles scene, moving back to Kansas City, and set up their own production company, Good Karma.
The A ‘n’ M management figured that they'd quit the music business, instead of just quitting La La Land, and so didn't bother to pick up their option. Instead, Brewer and Shipley signed to the Kama Sutra / Buddah label helmed by Neil Bogart. Up until then, Bogart had a reputation as being the 'King of Bubblegum' and seemingly specialized in goofy, frothy pop confections. He'd also been at the Cameo-Parkway label, where he'd foisted Chubby Checker onto the world of pop, and had struck chart pay dirt at Buddah with the likes of The Lemon Pipers and 1910 Fruitgum Company, but wanted to show that he could move into the alternative sphere, too, and signed acts to the label as varied as Melanie Safka, The Flamin' Groovies and, of course Brewer and Shipley.
Weeds was recorded in San Francisco, and produced by Electric Flag guitarist Nick Gravenites, who assembled a bunch of excellent players in the backing band, including guitarist Mike Bloomfield, keyboard player Mark Naftalin, and even roped Grateful Dead main man Jerry Garcia into the fold to provide a dab of steel guitar.The tight combo backings are superb throughout; there's a nice sense of freshness and space in the sound, and the duo's soaring vocal harmonies, as well as their obvious melodic skills have a refreshing urgency about them that still sounds invigorating and plaintive. As well as their excellent originals, the album's two covers are equally fine; a strident take on Dylan's All Along The Wotchtower, and the delightful Wichf-Tai-To. The latter is a minor underground classic, penned by Jim Pepper, a kind of Native American chanted mantra, with a three chord musical progression somewhat redolent of Sweet Jane by the Velvet Underground. The track had originally been cut by a band called Everything Is Everything, and was covered a little later by Harpers Bizarre, and apparently Brewer and Shipley heard it played on various radio stations when they were out touring, and learned it phonetically. Despite its seven minutes of playing time, it insistently builds to a powerful, profoundly lasting effect. It's one of the highlights of a strong and vibrant collection of quality late 60s US Folk Rock.
Tarkio, their next album, was recorded in 1970, and picks up where Weeds left off; more strong harmonising, Gravenites producing, and several of the same players on board for the return match. It also boasted a fluke hit single in OneToke Over The Line, which had started off as a kind of jokey novelty item played as an encore when the duo opened for label mate Melanie in New York, but label MD Bogart thought he heard hit potential in the song, and insisted the duo release it as a single - and it charted, despite the opprobrium of the US establishment. Other songs like Song From The P/otte River mourned the loss of personal freedoms in contemporary America, a theme echoed and embellished on Fifty States of Freedom. There's subversive wit and humour too, in an agreeable tentrack collection that never overstays its welcome, thanks to some fine ensemble playing, excellent songs and wonderful punchy harmony vocal work. I've been lucky enough to contact Brewer and Shipley for some comments in the compiling of this note.
I asked Tom Shipley why they decided to move back home - and whether it was a conscious desire to break free from the music biz: :"l think our music has always been free of the music business. That is probably why I'm working as a television producer today instead of being a music business guy. To be successful in the music business you have to be in the music business. That is not where I was coming from. My influences were Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. Michael and I wrote songs, not because we were trying to write hits. It was just music that was in us that we put into songs. I think our music has always reflected the times we were living in and in the late 60's and early 70's that coincided with what was happening in pop music. I don't think it goes any deeper than that. We were bouncing around the country like every other twenty something kid and writing about it and those kids related to it. I used to put up a tent on the Hopi Indian reservation on my trips back and forth from the Midwest to L.A. When we left Hollywood I lived there... wind chimes hanging from the pinion pine like a George Carlin character in an old hippie movie. During the L.A. exodus, Michael and I rendezvoused in Old Orabi on Third Mesa and watched the Hopi Snake Dance together before heading on to Oklahoma and our first post-L.A. gig. Listen to our first Buddah album, Weeds. Look at the cover. I think that says it all!" Yet, ironically, it was via a single that the duo would make a breakthrough into the broader rock audience.
When playing a show at New York's prestigious Carnegie Hall as openers for the aforementioned Melanie, they decided to perform a song that they'd been knocking into shape a matter of a few hours before. That song was One Toke Over The Line, and its overt drug-referencing went down a storm with the hippies in the crowd. Bogart took note of the response, and insisted that the duo record and release the track as a single. Ultimately, you've got to admire Bogart's unerring sense of what it takes to make a hit; he knew he could exploit the song's drug theme, crank up the controversy angle and fluke a smash 45 out of it. He wasn't wrong; but the notion of a hit single didn't play well with the duo, who felt that their work couldn't be reduced and simplified in such a way. They were meticulous about the way in which they constructed albums, and arbitrarily pulling a song from amongst the songs that surrounded it just didn't make sense to Brewer and Shipley. Unfortunately, it also served to put an unfortunate label on the duo as 'those two who made that drug record', a statement that is undeniably true, but a woeful undervaluing of their considerable talents.
The second brace of albums featured here, 'Shake Off The Demon* and 'Rural Space' come from 1971 and 1972 respectively, and though they yielded no hit singles, are nonetheless fine collections. The duo's previous Buddah albums had been produced by Nick Gravenites of Electric Flag, but the duo opted to produce themselves from now on - perhaps they thought that by now they were more studio-savvy. Tom Shipley thinks that this might not have been the right idea:"Studio savvy? We thought we were. In retrospect it was probably a mistake. While I think we were good producers at that time, Nick {Gravenites) had incredible access to every good musician in the Bay area. He also had a real talent for putting together bands. I have also come to believe that most artists shouldn't produce themselves. It's an objectivity issue. I think if we had continued on with Nick for another album or two they might have met with more success. I believe it hurt us with our record company, firing our producer after having had two successful albums with him. Weeds, while not a top forty album, did very well on underground radio and helped set the stage for our second Buddah album, Tarkio and the One Toke single.
They might have done a better job of promoting our next album if we had stayed with Nick. I'm not really sure their hearts were in it when we released Shake Off the Demon because they were starting to view us as temperamental artists. Of course by that time we had been on the road forever and were, how can I put it? Crazy!" Shake Off The Demon opens with the title track, an uplifting mid-pace rocker with the duo's excellent close harmonies being underpinned by rollicking barrelhouse piano played by Mark Naftalin. It's also considerably enhanced by Quicksilver Messenger Service guitarist John Cippolina weighing in with some raunchy slide guitar. Merciful Love is a sweet, intricate ballad, again beautifully sung by the duo. Message From The Mission (Hold On) is a message of solidarity from Brewer and Shipley to the confused counterculture audience to simply keep on keeping on. Rural Space also features some fine musicians – including drummer Prairie Prince, before he joined The Tubes and latterly Jefferson Starship. Musically it as varied as ever - Have A Good Life comes over as almost a Gregorian chant, and Blue Highway, clocking in at over six minutes, is one of their most developed tracks musically speaking of their recording career thus far. Going from a Blue Highway to a Block Sky - the latter penned by Steve Cash, the song would later feature on the self-titled Ozark Mountain Daredevils debut album. Yankee Lady is from the pen of the-then exiled Jesse Winchester - he had to move to Canada to avoid the Viet Nam draft, and based himself there - and Brewer and Shipley weigh in with an excellent version.
Overall, these four albums represent a fine snapshot of where US folk-rock was at on the cusp of the late sixties and into the early seventies. Fine harmonies, strong melodies and excellent musicianship conspire to produce music of a lasting quality. However, things would change at the duo's record label; main man Neil Bogart would soon set up the Casablanca Records label, finding huge success with Kiss and a little later, Donna Summer. Furthermore, the Californian soft-rock sound as represented by The Eagles would soon become a dominant feature of US radio, and the rather more earthier Brewer and Shipley were never slick enough to do that.
After being dropped by the label, the duo then recorded for Capitol, but after over ten years of recording and constant touring, the duo amicably parted ways in l980,They have, however, reconvened - the counter-culture audience, now well into its sixties and seventies, still loves its heroes, and the guys are still out there gigging. And they still play 'One Toke'!
by Alan Robinson, September 2016
Tracks Disc 1 Weeds 1969
1. Lady Like You - 2:07
2. Rise Up (Easy Rider) - 3:16
3. Boomerang - 2:20
4. Indian Summer - 2:57
5. All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) - 3:18
6. People Love Each Other - 2:52
7. Pigs Head - 2:07
8. Oh, Sweet Lady - 1:58
9. Too Soon Tomorrow - 2:51
10.Witchi-Tai-To (Jim Pepper) - 6:56 Tarkio 1970
11.One Toke Over The Line - 3:22
12.Song From Platte River - 3:19
13.The Light - 3:11
14.Ruby On The Morning - 2:19
15.Oh Mommy - 3:05
16.Don't Want To Die In Georgia - 3:49
17.Can't Go Home - 2:33
18.Tarko Road - 4:34
19.Seems Like A Long Time (Ted Anderson) - 4:16
20.Fifty States Of Freedom - 6:51
All songs by Michael Brewer, Tom Shipley except where stated
Disc 2 Shake Off The Demon 1971
1. Shake Off The Demon - 3:14
2. Merciful Love - 1:55
3. Message From The Mission (Hold On) - 3:07
4. One By One - 3:05
5. When Everybody Comes Home - 2:03
6. Working On The Wall - 3:18
7. Rock Me On The Water (Jackson Browne) - 4:02
8. Natural Child - 3:46
9. Back To The Farm - 3:22
10.Sweet Love - 3:54 Rural Space 1972
11.Yankee Lady (Jesse Winchester) - 3:38
12.Sleeping On The Way - 2:19
13.When The Truth Finally Comes - 2:34
14.Where Do We Go From Here - 2:18
15.Blue Highway(David Getz, Nick Gravenites) - 6:24
16.Fly Fly Fly (Steve Cash) - 3:08
17.Crested Butte - 3:24
18.Got To Get Off The Island - 3:15
19.Black Sky (Steve Cash) - 3:42
20.Have A Good Life - 2:31
All songs by Michael Brewer, Tom Shipley except where noted
Musicians Weeds 1969
*Mike Brewer - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Shakers, Vibra-Slap
*Tom Shipley - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Twelve String Guitar
*Mike Bloomfield - Electric Guitar
*Mark Naftalin - Piano, Organ
*Ira Kamin - Organ, Piano
*John Kahn - Bass
*Robert Huberman - Bass
*Bob Jones - Drums
*Fred Olsen - Electric Guitar
*Orville "Red" Rhodes - Pedal Steel Guitar
*Richard Green - Fiddle
*Applejack - Harmonica
*Rienol Andino - Congas
*Nicky Hopkins - Piano
*Phil Ford - Tabla
Arlo Guthrie's seventh record follows a formula that he'd been developing over the past several years -- a handful of interesting originals mixed with a song or two by a legend, something traditional, a couple of jokes, and one of Dad's tunes. Guthrie's fondness for nostalgia mixed with his '60s idealism could turn such predictability into folky mush, but things are kept fresh by his strong sense of tradition, commitment, and taste, along with his growth as an artist in general. As far back as Alice's Restaurant, Guthrie proved himself to be an affable performer, but the 1970s showed an added depth and maturity with each new release.
The Nixon diatribe "Presidential Rag" and the Mideast peace plea "Children of Abraham" bookend Woody Guthrie's "Deportees" nicely, while Jimmie Rodgers' "When the Cactus Is in Bloom" is a good fit with Arlo's bucolic tales "Me and My Goose" and "Bling Blang." Elsewhere, "Nostalgia Rag" hints at Randy Newman, "Go Down Moses" has the backing of a full gospel choir, "Won't Be Long" sports a country feel, and "Hard Times" is mountain music. Along with producers John Pilla and Lenny Waronker, Arlo chooses from a cream-of-the-crop collection of musicians to pull off this eclectic mix. And it's to his credit that he's successful more often than not. Though there's nothing drastically different here for Guthrie, the album continued a steady growth through the '70s, which placed him firmly at the doorstep of what would be the pinnacle of his career.
by Brett Hartenbach
Tracks
1. Won't Be Long - 2:40
2. Presidential Rag - 4:30
3. Deportees (Woody Guthrie, Martin Hoffman) - 3:50
4. Children Of Abraham - 2:28
5. Nostalgia - 2:54
6. When The Cactus Is In Bloom (Jimmie Rodgers) - 2:21
7. Me And My Goose - 2:02
8. Bling Blang (Woody Guthrie) - 2:47
9. Go Down Moses (Traditional) - 2:45
10.Hard Times - 2:43
11.Last To Leave - 2:34
Music and Lyrics by Arlo Guthrie except where stated
There are some names you never forget. Names like Narvel Felts, Felton Jarvis, Elvis Presley...Good Southern names for self-styled boys that made some of rock-n-roll’s great wild records. Such a name and such a man is Travis Wammack. Born in Walnut, Mississippi, he began his professional music career when he wrote and recorded his first record at the tender age of eleven, and also became the youngest member ever voted into the musicians union. After moving to Memphis, Tennesse, the young guitarist made his mark on the music world at the age of sixteen with his 1963 number one hit “Scratchy”.
He was the first to develop and use the fuzz tone for an electric guitar. By 1969, Wammack’s skills landed him in Muscle Shoals, Alabama where he teamed with legendary producer Rick Hall at Hall’s FAME Records. Travis’ guitar licks can be heard on hit records that have sold over 'SIXTY MILLION' copies!…songs recorded by artists such as Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Little Richard, Mac Davis, Clarence Carter, the Osmond Brothers, Bobbie Gentry, Candi Staton, Delbert McClinton, Liza Minnelli, Narvel Felts and many more. Wammack’s solo artist career (produced by Hall) also sky rocketed with the release of albums in 1971 and 1975.
He traveled the world as Little Richard’s band leader from 1984 until 1995, performing on several nationally syndicated television programs as well as President Bill Clinton’s inauguration party. Wammack became known as the “Fastest Guitar Player In The South”, where he was described by Rolling Stone’s Greg Shaw as “the fastest guitar player I have ever heard in my life, and not just fast but good. Brilliant, even. His stage show is flamboyant and exciting.” In 1998, Wammack released his live CD "Still Rockin’". It contains a collection of rock and soul classics from the 60's and 70's.
In 2000, his “Snake, Rattle & Roll in Muscle Shoals” CD was released. This release contains a collection of Travis’ best original material and is sure to rock you with a touch of soul. In 2002 Wammack released another live CD “Rock-N-Roll Party" which showcases everything from his soul vocals on ‘Dreams To Remember’, his dazzling guitar work and voice-box on ‘Rocky Mountain Way’, to the swampy slide work on his original ‘Rock-N-Roll Shoes’. In 2008 Travis released the CD "Memphis + Muscle Shoals = Travis Wammack" which includes more of his original rock-n- soul tunes, including a medley of "Scratchy" & "Firefly".
In 2008 he also released his first gospel CD "Almost Home". In 2009 he released his fist country CD "Country In My Soul". In 2010 Travis released "Rock-N-Roll Days", an acoustic show of oldies but goodies and in 2011 released "Rock-N-Roll Days Vol. II". Travis now works with Muscle Shoals Music Marketing, and has added “Producer” to his already impressive resume. He is a member of the ‘Memphis Music Hall of Fame’, and in 1999 Wammack received the Professional Musician Award from the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
In 2005 he was inducted into The Southern Legends Entertainment And Performing Arts Hall Of Fame. In May 2006, Gibson Guitars presented Travis with a new Gibson ES-335 guitar as part of their documentary honoring legendary Gibson ES series players. In 2011 Travis was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of
Tracks
1. So Good (Jim Carroll, Joey Levine) - 3:55
2. How Can I Tell You (Cat Stevens) - 4:43
3. Put On Your Shoes And Walk (J.R. Bailey, Ken Williams) - 2:47
4. You Better Move On (Arthur Alexander) - 3:13
5. Funk #49 (Dale Peters, Jim Fox, Joe Walsh) - 4:10
6. You Are My Sunshine (Charles Mitchell, Jimmie Davis) - 4:11
7. Whatever Turns You On (George Jackson, Raymond Moore) - 3:01
8. Darling You're All That I Had (John Bettis, Kerry Chater) - 3:37
9. Slip Away (Marcus Daniel, Wilbur Terrell, William Armstrong) - 2:53
10.I Don't Really Want You (Dennis Linde) - 3:13
Guy Clark waited a long time to get himself on record, despite a proven pedigree as a songwriter penning sometimes joyous, sometimes bittersweet, frequently autobiographical, always poetic narratives of Western life. Jerry Jeff Walker had cut Clark’s “L.A. Freeway” and “Desperadoes Waiting For A Train” for his eponymous 1972 album, whilst Townes Van Zandt included “Don’t Let The Sunshine Fool Ya” on his sublime The Late Great Townes Van Zandt the same year. Meanwhile, Monahans, TX, native Clark had held down a day job as a TV station art director in Houston whilst playing the city’s folk clubs with the likes of Townes and K.T. Oslin, and, during a brief unhappy spell in Los Angeles, worked as a staff songwriter for Sunbury Music and as a luthier building Dobros. It wasn’t until several years after he moved to Nashville that he finally signed to RCA and released his own first album in 1975, effectively “covering” some of his own tunes that others had put down years earlier.
Under his RCA contract Clark turned out two country-meets-folk albums of such homely, unassuming beauty that it’s amazing in retrospect to think it took him so long to find his own voice on vinyl. On the first, Old No. 1 , Clark’s own belated versions of “Desperadoes” and “Freeway” proved peerless, and other future classics such as “Texas 1947”, “Let Him Roll” and “A Nickel For The Fiddler” rounded out a faultless ten-track set taking in folk, bluegrass, honky-tonk and the most lonesome of torch ballads in a respectful, authentic fashion that contrasted with both the bland country-pop of Chet Atkins’s Nashville roster and the hyperactive rawk’n’roll of Waylon Jennings’s Outlaw clique.
Alongside Clark’s own masterful acoustic guitar picking, the album featured gorgeous, restrained accompaniments from a bevy of Music Row sessioneers including Reggie Young (guitar), Johnny Gimble (fiddle), Micky Raphael (harmonicas), David Briggs (piano) and Hal Rugg (pedal steel and Dobro) plus almost all of Emmylou Harris’s entourage as guest backing vocalists, with Harris’s own crystal soprano harmonies embellishing Clark’s warm, cracked Texas brogue in similar fashion to the way she’d counterpointed the fragile warblings of Gram Parsons.
None of which, sadly, provided Clark with a hit; there were no singles released and the album itself struggled only to a lowly 41 on the Billboard country chart. The next year’s follow-up Texas Cookin’ similarly made no commercial impact despite being of nearly as high a quality and including such wonderful waxings as “Virginia’s Real”, “Don’t Let The Sunshine Fool Ya” and the incomparable “The Last Gunfighter Ballad”, and that did it for Clark’s RCA contract.
It would be another two years before he resurfaced on Warner for his third long-player, since when he’s put out infrequent albums on that and no fewer than seven other imprints with no-better-than-modest sales all the way. Yet his songs have been repeatedly covered by country royalty: Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, Rodney Crowell, Alan Jackson, Bobby Bare, Jimmy Buffett and the Highwaymen. In 2011 a slew of the aforementioned plus Steve Earle, Joe Ely, Roseanne Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Sexsmith, Townes’s son John and others returned the compliment with a double CD of Clark’s best known tunes entitled This One’s For Him: A Tribute To Guy Clark. Rarely has such a tribute been so genuinely justified, but if this sounds just too gratulatory, treat yourself instead to the twofer CD containing Old No. 1 and Texas Cookin’.
by Len Liechti
Guy Clark died in Nashville on May 17th, 2016, following a lengthy battle with lymphoma.
Tracks
1. Rita Ballou - 2:51
2. L. A. Freeway - 4:57
3. She Ain't Going Nowhere - 3:27
4. A Nickel For The Fiddler - 2:46
5. That Old Time Feeling - 4:12
6. Texas - 1947 - 3:10
7. Desperados Waiting For Thetrain - 4:30
8. Like A Coat From The Cold - 3:17
9. Instant Coffee Blues - 3:15
10.Let Him Roll - 4:04
All songs by Guy Clark
Personnel
*Guy Clark – Lead Vocals, Guitar
*Mike Leach - Bass
*Jerry Kroon - Drums
*Larrie Londin - Drums
*Chip Young - Guitar
*Pat Carter - Guitar, Vocals
*Steve Gibson - Guitar
*Jerry Carrigan - Drums
*Dick Feller - Guitar
*Jim Colvard - Guitar
*Reggie Young - Guitar
*Hal Rugg - Dobro, Pedal Steel
*Jack Hicks - Dobro
*David Briggs - Piano, Vocals
*Chuck Cochran - Piano
*Shane Keister - Piano
*Johnny Gimble - Fiddle
*Mickey Raphael - Harmonica
*Lea Jane Berinati - Vocals, Piano
*Rodney Crowell - Vocals
*Emmylou Harris - Vocals
*Gary B. White - Vocals
*Florence Warner - Vocals
*Steve Earle - Vocals
*Sammi Smith - Vocals
From the moment I heard Friday On My Mind by the Easybeats, I was convinced Australians had a special knack for rock. Diligent subsequent listening to pioneering Aussie-60s anthologies such as Ugly Things and So You Want To Be A Rock'n'Roll Star series, plus energetic if largely ineffectual efforts to collect original artefacts from the period, has done nothing to shake that conviction.
Most previous comps concentrate on Australia's formidable garage-rock and psychedelic legacy, highlighted by such world-class nuggets as Undecided by the Masters Apprentices and The Real Thing by Russell Morris. Of Hopes And Dreams And Tombstones: Australia's Beat Years illuminates a less-exposed sub-genre in which Australian artists display the same uncanny mastery.
Beat music, imported from Britain both on record and in person by streams of immigrants, thrived in the Australian mid-60s at lofty levels of proficiency, originality and passion. This 31-track anthology provides a welcome introduction to the scene's diversity. It's got many of the big beat idols - Billy Thorpe And the Aztecs, the Purple Hearts, Normie Rowe And the Playboys, and the twin Tonys of Aussie beat renown, Barber and Worsley - and a host of less celebrated but equally adept compatriots. And the range of styles is remarkable.
Oh by the Rajahs sounds like the Beau Brummels imitating the Searchers. Jimmy Crockett And the Shanes' intense That Lovin' Touch reminds me a bit of the Blues Magoos. Tony Worsley's vocal on Ready Steady Let's Go is reminiscent of a less deranged Roky Erickson.
Thorpe's Blue Day and the Courtmen's I've Got To Let You Go are proto-garage stormers, while Steve And the Board's So Why Pretend and the Pogs' I'll Never Love Again display consummate command of the melodic moody-beat style.
I've always been fascinated by the obscure material antipodean acts unearthed (aided by active music publishers). This collection boasts some prime examples, none more obscure than the Purple Hearts' title track, ephemerally released in the U.S. as a public-service announcement with some copies of the 45 omitting the artist's name (Jimmy Fraser, if you're keeping score at home). Other obscurities include the Others' Dancing Girl, one of Bo Diddley's less-celebrated numbers but one of the better Bo covers in the pantheon-.-and Mike Furber And the Bowery Boys' version of the great Addrisi Brothers/Grains of Sand/Montanas stormer That's When Happiness Began.
I've been raving on for six paragraphs (and entering the seventh) and still haven't mentioned such faves on this anthology as the ultra-tough Don't Ask Me Why by Chris Hall And the Torquays or the rockabilly-flavored rasp of Toni McCann's My Baby or Tony Barber's weird and wondrous I Want Her To. But the best thing about Of Hopes, etc. is that, as comprehensive and eclectic a collection as it is, it merely scratches the surface of the Australian mid-1960s motherlode. Which means that future volumes must be a definite possibility. Which would make me very happy indeed.
by Ken Barnes
Artists - Tracks
1. The Purple Hearts - Of Hopes And Dreams And Tombstones (Joy Byers) - 2:26
2. The Rajahs - Oh! (Leon Isackson) - 2:35
3. Tony Worsley And The Blue Jays - Ready Steady Let's Go (Geoff Brown) - 2:00
4. Billy Thorpe And The Aztecs - Blue Day (Tony Barber) - 2:45
5. Chris Hall And The Torquays - Don't Ask Me Why (Chris Hall) - 2:02
6. Normie Rowe And The Playboys - She Used To Be Mine (Nat Kipner, Steve Kipner) - 2:35
7. Jimmy Crockett And The Shanes - That Lovin' Touch (Nat Kipner) - 2:05
8. Mike Furber And The Bowery Boys - That's When Happiness Began (Dick Addrisi, Don Addrisi) - 2:16
9. The Showmen - So Far Away (Baden Hutchins, Peter Ellison) - 2:24
10.The Sunsets - When I Found You (Lindsay Bjerre) - 2:16
11.Toni McCann - My Baby (Mal Clarke, Royce Nichols) - 2:01
12.Steve And The Board - So Why Pretend (Carl Keats) - 2:22
13.The Courtmen - I've Got To Let You Go (Barry Shepherd) - 2:26
14.Russ Kruger - Well, Ain't That Nice (Theo Penglis) - 2:22
15.Ray Brown And The Whispers - Too Late To Come Home (Christian Arnold, David Martin, Geoffrey Morrow) - 2:22
16.The Playboys - It's Awright (Rufus Thomas) - 2:37
17.The Morloch - Every Night (Noel Neates) - 2:26
18.The Pacifics - Slowly But Surely (Bobby Dean) - 2:57
19.Barrington Davis - Complicated Riddle (Nat Kipner, Ossie Byrne) - 1:31
20.Tony Worsley And The Blue Jays - If You See My Baby (Mal Clarke, Royce Nichols) - 2:33
21.The Five - There's Time (Ron Williams) - 2:17
22.Tony Barber - I Want Her Too (Tony Barber) - 2:29
23.Donnie Sutherland And The Titans - No Cheatin' (Donnie Sutherland, Robert Shean) - 2:09
24.The Others - Dancing Girl (Elias McDaniel) - 2:27
25.Graeme Chapman - Baby Let Your Hair Down (Bart Barberis, Bobby Hart) - 2:11
26.The Mystrys - Witch Girl (Bob Kinleside Crawford) - 2:03
27.The Pacifics - Lost My Baby (Jeffrey James Bean) - 2:16
28.The Pogs - I'll Never Love Again (Peter Best) - 2:38
29.The Librettos - She's A Go Go (Brian Peacock, Rod Stone) - 2:29
30.The Escorts - House On Soul Hill (Ray Eddlemon, Scott Turner) - 1:47
31.Mike Furber - You're Back Again (Lonnie Lee) - 2:18
By the mid 1970s, the Southern African nation known as the Republic of Zambia had fallen on hard times. Though the country’s first president Kenneth Kaunda had thrown off the yoke of British colonialism, the new federation found itself under his self-imposed, autocratic rule. Conflict loomed on all sides of this landlocked nation. Kaunda protected Zambia from war, but his country descended into isolation and poverty as he supported rebel movements in neighboring countries Angola, Zimbabwe and Mozambique and stood up against apartheid South Africa.
This is the environment in which the 70s rock revolution that has come to be known as Zamrock flourished. It’s no wonder that the Zambian musicians taken by American and European influences gravitated to the dark side of the rock and funk spectrum. Fuzz guitars were commonplace, as were driving rhythms influenced by James Brown’s funk and Jimi Hendrix’s rock. Musical themes, mainly sung in the country’s constitutional language, English, were often bleak.
When Now-Again Records’s Eothen “Egon” Alapatt started his investigation into this scene, he found that Zamrock markers were few. Only a small number of the original Zamrock godfathers that remained in the country survived through the late ’90s, when the music recorded in ’70s Zambia became the final frontier for those global-psychedelic rock junkies searching for their next fix. AIDS decimated this country, and uncontrollable inflation forced the Zambian rockers that could afford to flee into something resembling exile.
This was not a likely scene to survive – but it did. Following Now-Again’s previous anthologies centered around Zamrock bands WITCH, Ngozi Family, Amanaz and Musi-O-Tunya, Welcome To Zamrock!, presented in two volumes, arrives; these two volumes highlight Now-Again’s decade-long investigation into this musical movement and present the definitive overview of its most beloved ensembles. Zamrock’s ascension, its fall and its resurgence is detailed in an extensive book written by Alapatt and Zambian music historian Leonard Koloko. Both Welcome To Zamrock! volumes are presented as 2LPs (with WAV download card and edited booklet) and also as a full 104-page hardcover book with CD. Bundles of both formats are available only via Rappcats, at a discounted price. Both anthologies contain rare tracks by WITCH, Amanaz, Paul Ngozi, Chrissy Zebby Tembo, Five Revolutions, Dr. Footswitch and every important Zamrock band.
Check the liner notes of an album by an artist that doesn’t primarily write their own material, and the credits will be teeming with the names of the people responsible for penning the songs. Sometimes these names will be familiar: fellow performers, star producers, or the rare songwriter or writing team that has earned enough hits to be well-known in their own right. Much of the time, however, the names will be more obscure, listing writers who may have worked steadily for years turning out album tracks and B-sides, or recording with minor artists rather than stars. If they’re very lucky, they might even manage to punctuate their career with a hit or two.
Such is the case of Bobby Lance, a Brooklyn native who started writing songs with his older sister Fran Robins (17 years his senior) while still a teenager in the late ’50s. Most of their material was doled out to little-known doo-wop and girl group outfits, but the duo scored big when Aretha Franklin took their song “The House That Jack Built” to the Top 10 on both the pop and R&B charts in 1968. The hit granted Lance the opportunity to record two albums for Atlantic Records, 1971’s First Peace (released on the Cotillion imprint) and 1972’s Rollin’ Man, both now compiled onto a single disc and released on CD for the first time by Real Gone Music.
Lance’s debut, 1971’s First Peace, was made with the full backing of the Atlantic machine, featuring a lineup of musicians familiar to anyone who’s studied the liner notes of the label’s classic soul albums of the era. The Swampers, house band for Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, serves as Lance’s core group, while legendary saxophonist King Curtis leads the horn section, and the gospel group the Sweet Inspirations provides the backing vocals. Lance, for his part, leads with a gutsy, Southern-inflected voice of surprising range and intensity, well-suited for the soulful ballads and bluesy rockers comprising the album.
“More Than Enough Rain” is by far the best-known song on either of Lance’s LPs, due to the rumor that Duane Allman plays slide guitar on the track. (Bill Kopp’s liner notes for this reissue presents it as fact, but it’s apparently still a source of debate for avid Allman Brothers fans.) The six-minute psych-blues rocker is a bit of an outlier, however. More typical of First Peace is opening track “Somebody Tell Me,” a mid-tempo R&B groover that mixes blues boilerplate (“My mama had me on a block of wood / in an old broken-down shack”) with vaguely hippie sentiments (“everybody helps each other, yeah”).
First Peace sometimes feels weighed down with Lance’s insistence on piling on the dramatics and “soulful” signifiers, but it’s also packed with enough gems to demonstrate why he managed to be in demand by not one, but two of the most important record labels of the era. (See below.) The underwritten melody line and tired “I’m a man, you can’t hold me down” lyrics of “Somewhere in Between” are more than made up for by its thundering, desperate chorus, which singlehandedly propels the song to the top of the pack. “One Turn You’re In One Turn You’re Out” and “Trouble is a Sometimes Thing” are radio-friendly ballads that could have been R&B hits (though perhaps in cover versions), while the moody atmosphere and tense arrangement of “Shake Down Blues” lends the song a directness largely lacking from rest of the album.
First Peace met with little success. At some point before its release, Lance had also managed to sign a songwriting contract with Motown Records. The legal wrangling between the two labels resulted in a decision that they would split the profits of Lance’s albums, and Atlantic had little interest in promoting a record in which it had only a limited financial stake. Rollin’ Man, released the following year, is far more stripped down, probably due to budgetary restrictions. Gone are the strings and horns, the Sweet Inspirations backing vocals, and Robins as his writing partner. Instead, Lance wrote all the tracks — nine on this album, shrunk down from the 11 on First Peace — and recorded them in New York with a four-piece rock band he had recruited on his own. Even the cover of his second album knocked a few superfluous letters from his name, billing him only as “B. Lance.”
Despite the cutbacks — or, more likely, because of them — the lean Rollin’ Man is the superior album, tamping down the previous album’s florid blue-eyed soulisms and focusing on a tighter rock groove. Lusty opener “Bar Room Sally” introduces Lance in a less self-serious mood; during the coda, he even provides the voice of “Sally” and kissy noises against a clattering, saloon-style piano. For all its goofiness, though, “Bar Room Sally” also sets the template for the level of songcraft throughout the album. Unlike First Peace, where even many of the stronger tracks seemed either underwritten or overly busy, epic rockers like “Something Unfinished” and “John the Rollin’ Man” are packed with hooks, but lean enough to keep them sharp and let them sink in.
Lance’s taste for grandeur hadn’t abated entirely, however, as testified by the lengthy instrumental solos on the eight-and-a-half-minute-long “Hot Wood and Coal,” and the expansive, Neil Diamondesque pop balladry of “Last Stop Change Hands” and “She Made Me a Man.” Yet the limitations of the recording process seem to have inspired Lance. While First Peace at times sounded like a songwriter’s demo tape — a song for Aretha, followed by a song for Clarence Carter — Rollin’ Man is fully committed to Lance’s personal blend of influences and interests. Ever the professional songwriter, however, there’s nothing on the album so personal or idiosyncratic that it couldn’t be covered by a band like Three Dog Night or Grand Funk Railroad. The one exception is album closer “Tribute to a Woman,” a delicate, relatively elliptical hymn that barely runs over a minute, yet contains more genuine feeling than First Peace‘s ode to ladykind, “Walkin’ on a Highway.”
Despite the fact that Lance found his groove, however, Rollin’ Man would prove to be his final album; like its predecessor, it foundered. Lance briefly continued to work as a songwriter for Atlantic, but the trouble he had caused for the label ensured his contract wasn’t renewed when it expired. The man who had worked in the music business since he was a teenager suddenly found himself locked out of the industry. Unlike many of his songwriting peers, however, Lance was lucky enough to leave behind a recorded legacy of his own. First Peace and Rollin’ Man aren’t perfect albums, but Lance’s talent shines throughout. Had he had as much of a head for legal matters and business as for songwriting and performing, it’s possible these albums wouldn’t be just cult curiosities, but the start of a fascinating career.
by Sally O'Rourke
Tracks
1. Somebody Tell Me - 2:22
2. Somewhere In Between - 3:44
3. One Turn You're In One Turn You're Out - 4:12
4. More Than Enough Rain - 5:54
5. I May Not Have Enough Time - 3:12
6. It Can't Be Turned Around - 2:18
7. Brother's Keeper - 3:28
8. Trouble Is A Sometimes Thing - 3:49
9. Cold Wind Howling In My Heart - 3:39
10.Shake Down Blues - 3:11
11.Walkin' On A Highway - 5:07
12.Bar Room Sally - 4:20
13.Hot Wood And Coal - 8:26
14.Somewhat Unfinished - 3:33
15.She Made Me A Man - 2:30
16.John The Rollin' Man - 4:33
17.Last Stop Change Hands - 5:10
18.You Got To Rock Your Own - 3:12
19.He Played The Reals - 3:38
20.Tribute To A Woman - 1:18
All selections written by Bobby Lance except Tracks 1-11 co written with Fran Robins
Bernie Schwartz’s first classic single, Her Name Is Melody was released off Warner Brothers in late 1966 under the name Adrian Pride. This record is an excellent, early stab of raga rock that was perhaps too adventurous for pop audiences though its interesting to note that both Don and Phil Everly produced this fabulous single.
Even prior to this, Schwartz had been releasing obscure singles under the stage name Don Atello in 1963/1964. Around 1967/1968 Schwartz joined psychedelic pop band Comfortable Chair who released a solid lp in 1968. The Wheel, released in 1969 off Coburt/MGM was quite a departure from Schwartz’s earlier psych pop leanings. The Wheel is an excellent album, mixing hard rock, country-rock and folk-rock into something similar to Euphoria’s sole album or Neil Young’s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. The Euphoria duo of Wesley Watt and Bill Lincoln actually appear on this disc and one can hear Watt’s wild fuzz guitar playing on Schwartz’s epic cover of Sunshine Woman. There are also a few more ace fuzz rockers in Follow Me and a brutally intense reading of Fred Neil’s Candy Man.
Everything about this album is on target from Schwartz’s superb vocals to the songwriting, production and tight musicianship. This is one of the best 60s albums never to make it onto cd (until now) without a doubt. The Wheel’s leadoff track, Where Can I Hide is a country folk-rocker with lyrics that deal with disillusionment, depression and escapism. It’s a brilliant track that had strong hit potential though its deep, world weary tone could have thrown off more than a few listeners. Another track with similar lyrical concerns is the awesome country-rocker Lost My Wings. It’s a classic of the genre with wonderful steel guitar playing and a righteous bridge that symbolizes everything that is great about 60s rock n roll. Other mellower tracks such as Randy Newman’s Think It’s Gonna Rain Today, Don’t Make It Bad, Can’t Go On, and the beautiful rural rocker Peace On Earth are just as good and grow on the listener with repeated plays.
Sometime after the release of the Wheel, Bernie Schwartz quit rock music to focus on writing psychology books. The Wheel is proof that there are many rare, great recordings that have not been reissued on cd. I found a near mint copy on ebay for about $25 and would recommend this lp to anyone with an interest in 60s rock.
by Jason Nardelli
Tracks
1. Where Can I Hide (Morgan Cavett, Bernie Schwartz, Gene Gartin) - 3:57
2. Candy Man (Beverly "Ruby" Ross) - 3:00
3. Lost My Wings (Gene Gartin) - 3:04
4. Round And Round (Neil Young) - 3:45
5. Follow Me (Kenny Edwards) - 2:29
6. Peace On Earth (Bernie Schwartz) - 3:18
7. Sunshine Woman (Bill Lincoln, Wesley Watt) - 3:17
8. Don't Make It Bad (Bernie Schwartz) - 2:00
9. Think It's Gonna Rain Today (Randy Newman) - 2:32
10.Can't Go On (Bernie Schwartz) - 2:47
The Moving Sidewalks have been rendered down to a rock n’ roll footnote – they were the band that spawned young guitar sensation Billy Gibbons to eventually find fame and fortune with the power trio ZZ Top. But, to view them as simply a springboard, is to miss out on some really great rock n’ roll. The Complete Collection – a two-disc set featuring their only proper album, Flash (1968), plus singles, demos, and unreleased material.
The band’s greatest moment was “99th Floor,” a perfect blend of fuzzed-out blues and trippy psychedelia, which was picked up by Wand Records in 1967, and became a regional hit. Nothing else the band delivered during that period connected, and they were dropped from the label and returned to their Texas roots. Those singles and outtakes (including several insane readings of “I Want To Hold Your Hand”) make up the bulk of disc two. There’s also some sides of Gibbons’ earlier band, known as the Coachmen, but these aren’t terribly notable.
Then, something fortuitous happened – they had a chance to open for Jimi Hendrix for a pair of regional shows. Gibbons and Hendrix became fast friends, spending hours together, trading licks and listening to music. Armed with a new lease on life, the band entered the studio to record a proper album. The result, Flash, is one of the great lost records of the psychedelic era.
“Flashback” opens the set – organ, guitar, and killer drumming, with Gibbons handling the vocals. Halfway through, the song sounds like it ends in a sea of echo, with a snippet of their almost-hit “99 Floor” fading in for a brief moment. Then, the song takes on an Indian flavor for the coda – pretty cool stuff. “Scoun Da Be” has a bluesy groove, and is pretty similar to what ZZ Top would become, sans the organ. It’s no surprise that Hendrix’ s influence crops up all over the place – near the end of “You Make Me Shake “ there’s distorted guitar that jumps from left to right. “Pluto Sept. 31st” has a rhythm very similar to Jimi’s “Fire,” while Gibbons sings with a Hendrix coolness. About 2 minutes in, the song totally breaks down into psychedelic trippiness, similar to “2000 Light Years From Home” from the Stones, strange laughing, a crazy backwards guitar solo, eventually finally returning to the original song structure.
But, nothing compares to the one-two punch which ends the album – “Eclipse” and “Reclipse” both aren’t really “songs,” so much as exercises in utter weirdness. Bursts of distorted guitar are interlaced with odd talking, singing, and strange gibberish, not unlike the Beatles “Revolution #9,” except, this actually is pretty entertaining.
Unfortunately, tensions in the band would lead to their breakup even before the LP was released. So, it’s no surprise that it never really registered on most people’s radar. Which is indeed a shame – Flash is a very solid listen.
Certainly anyone interested in how ZZ Top got started should pick up The Complete Moving Sidewalks. However, their lone album, Flash, can stand on it’s own, thank you very much. Even if Billy Gibbons hadn’t gone on to fame and fortune, the Moving Sidewalks would still have been considered great.
by Tony Peters
Dig deeper into 'The Complete Moving Sidewalks,' however, and its rarities-packed second disc nearly makes up for the dated trinkets scattered about their initial project. These stand-alone singles and demos boast none of the studio trickery that mars the 'Flash,' and that imbues these sides with a far more interesting, almost proto-punk feel.
There is an romping, unfettered energy about the organ-driven, hometown hit '99th Floor,' and a whiff of the biker bar-rattling blues rock to come on 'Help Me.' 'Need Me' draws a straight line from the sexualized purr of 'Wild Thing' to the psychedelic weirdo jangle of the 13th Floor Elevators' 'You're Gonna Miss Me.' They also get the Beatle-y pretensions utterly right on a wackadoo take on 'I Want To Hold Your Hand,' which echoes behind drummer Dan Mitchell's furious fills with an acid-laced wonder. The set then goes even further back, offering recordings of '99th Floor' and 'Stay Away' from an earlier, still more primitive Gibbons amalgam called the Coachmen.
Even so, these will likely be heard as nothing more than pleasant distractions for anyone other than ZZ Top completists -- or those hoping to familiarize themselves with Gibbons' work here before the Moving Sidewalks reunite for their first gig together in some 45 years, on March 2013, at the B.B. King Blues Club in New York.
by Nick Deriso
Tracks Disc 1 Flash 1968
1. Flashback (Steve Ames) - 4:50
2. Scoun Da Be (Tom Moore) - 2:08
3. You Make Me Shake (Billy Gibbons) - 3:05
4. You Don't Know The Life (Tom Moore) - 3:57
5. Pluto - Sept 31st (Billy Gibbons, Steve Ames) - 5:12
6. No Good To Cry (Al Anderson) - 4:39
7. Crimson Witch (Billy Gibbons) - 3:05
8. Joe Blues (Billy Gibbons, Tom Moore, Don Summers, Dan Mitchell) - 7:39
9. Eclipse (Billy Gibbons, Steve Ames) - 3:37
10.Reclipse (Billy Gibbons, Steve Ames) - 2:28
Disc 2 Non Lp Singles And Unreleased Tracks
1. 99th Floor (Billy Gibbons) - 2:16
2. What Are You Going To Do (Alternate Version) (Billy Gibbons) - 2:50
3. What Are You Going To Do (Billy Gibbons) - 2:31
4. Headin' Out (Instrumental) (Billy Gibbons, Tom Moore, Don Summers, Dan Mitchell) - 4:03
5. Need Me (Billy Gibbons) - 2:15
6. Every Night A New Surprise (Unreleased Version) (Steve Ames) - 2:31
7. Every Night A New Surprise (Steve Ames) - 2:57
8. I Want To Hold Your Hand (Unreleased Alternate Version) (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) - 3:10
9. I Want To Hold Your Hand (Alternate Take) (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) - 3:29
10.I Want To Hold Your Hand (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) - 3:27
11.Flashback (Unreleased Version) (Steve Ames) - 4:47
12.Stay Away (Dan Mitchell) - 2:09
13.Stay Away (Instrumental Version) (Dan Mitchell) - 2:28
14.99th Floor (Demo) (Billy Gibbons) - 2:12
15.Stay Away (Demo) (Dan Mitchell) - 2:16
16.99th Floor (Billy Gibbons) - 3:06
Tracks 12-16 as The Coachmen
'Live Dates' is the first live album by Wishbone Ash. Although it's not the same, as being in the first row of the seats, this record is an excellent display for the true concert. "The double album was released in December 1973, earlier that same year, in May, they released "Wishbone IV", the production handeled by the members of the band.
Live Dates is a collection of their recorded performances in four different cities, at Fairfield Hall, Croydon, England (June 17th 1973), Portsmouth Guildhall, England (June 21st 1973), Reading University, England (June 23rd 1973) and Newcastle City Hall, England (June 24th 1973), the band exercise their repertoire with engaging quality - their exquisite performances drag you into the colourful world of these Brit rockers. You just wish you were there to witness their greatness in person.
Five songs from the setlist of these appearances were left out. Andy Powell's riff for '' The King Will Come '' opens the album and the powerful trilogy with 'Argus' songs continues with 'Warrior' and 'Throw Down The Sword'. The energy of Wishbone Ash on stage, the dynamics of authentic composition and the characteristic double guitar harmonies, offer an alloy of their first and best releases.
The album climbed up to No. 23 in the UK and became silver. In the United States - whose release included a number of photos from their tours, sold 100,000 copies in the first week of its release.
Tracks Disc 1
1. The King Will Come - 7:44
2. Warrior - 5:42
3. Throw Down The Sword - 5:57
4. Rock 'n Roll Widow - 6:08
5. Ballad Of The Beacon - 5:23
6. Baby, What You Want Me To Do (Jimmy Reed) - 7:48
All compositions by Andy Powell, Martin Turner, Ted Turner, Steve Upton except track #6
Disc 2
1. The Pilgrim - 9:15
2. Blowin' Free - 5:31
3. Jail Bait - 4:38
4. Lady Whiskey - 5:58
5. Phoenix - 17:23
All songs by Andy Powell, Martin Turner, Ted Turner, Steve Upton
Ballad of Easy Rider was one of two great Byrds’ albums to be released after the groups’ acknowledged heyday (Mr. Tambourine Man to Sweetheart of the Rodeo). Released in 1969, before the excellent double set Untitled, Ballad of Easy Rider was a quiet, tranquil record with good songs and fine, professional performances. By this time Clarence White was a full-time member and the group was looking to rebound from their prior release, the uneven Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde.
Ballad of Easy Rider kicked off with the title track, two minutes of beautiful countrified folk-rock that was notable for its stately orchestration. This was definitely one of the latter group’s finest performances and legend has it that Dylan wrote half the lyrics down on a napkin (McGuinn naturally finished up the song). Perhaps the album’s most popular track was the gospel influenced “Jesus Is Just Alright,” a fine pop number in it’s own right that reached the lower regions of the charts. There were great covers of “Tulsa Country” (country-rock with excellent guitar work from Clarence White), “There Must Be Someone I Can Turn To” (a classic Gosdin Brothers‘ track), “Jack Tarr The Sailor” (a sea shanty folk-rocker with stinging electric guitar and banjo) and Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee.” The story behind “There Must Be Someone I Can Turn To” is rather interesting. One night Vern Gosdin came home after playing a gig to find his house completely empty. His wife and kids were gone along with the furniture and there was a goodbye note from his wife. With this in mind, Vern sat down and wrote “There Must Be Someone I Can Turn To.” The Byrds decided to include this number into their set because of its meaning and emotional power.
The originals on Ballad of Easy Rider are also impressive. “Fido,” written by John York is a funky number about a stray dog. There’s a brief drum solo and some strong guitar riffs, it’s unlike anything the Byrds would ever record. “Oil In My Lamp” showcases a Clarence White vocal and is an excellent country rocker with a very laid back, rustic feel (with more great guitar riffs). The best of the bunch is “Gunga Din,” a minor Byrds’ classic with Gene Parsons taking lead vocals and really great finger picking via Clarence White. It almost seems as if Roger McGuinn relinquished his leadership role in the Byrds to let Clarence White take the spotlight on Ballad of Easy Rider.
I think it’s wrong to assume the Byrds were dead after Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Many fans suggest this version of the Byrds was less innovative and lacked a strong songwriter. While the Byrds did write fine original material they were also known as great interpreters of folk and country material. I must point out that these latter day Byrds were known to be a great live band (probably the best in the group’s history), featured one of the era’s finest guitarists in Clarence White, and released two classic country-rock records. This is one of them.
by Jason Nardelli
The Byrds, — under the aegis of McGuinn the Survivor — are renowned for a rich, thickly-textured instrumental sound and equally distinctive vocal harmony. Every new Byrds album seems a continuation of the last; few surprises occur — instead, it's just like a visit with old friends.
Everyone who's written about the Byrds has detected, in retrospect at least, their all-along C&W soul; now McGuinn is denying that as mostly mythical, as having been merely the influence of Parsons and Hillman on the group. His claim won't wash for Dr. Byrds (cut after their departure), but it just might for Ballad of Easy Rider — because this album exhibits several cuts with a whole "new" sound.
Unfortunately, it's also only intermittently successful. The title cut, for example, adds strings (!); but it flows gently, sweet Dylan, brief and to the point, and McGuinn's voice truly makes you feel free. "Fido" comes next — "Bird Dog" revisited — with cowbells and conga rhythms and a definitely non-Byrds harmony (evidently McGuinn's no longer requiring the other voices to complement his). Followed then by old-time Byrds-gospel, "Oil in My Lamp." Jaunty guitar interplay, but a paltry song. McGuinn's feeling vocal and Clarence White's hick picking bring it all back home with "Tulsa County Blue": "I don't know just where I'll go . . ." A bizarre rendition of "Jack Tarr the Sailor" closes out the top side.
The bottom side's equally confused — strong and sure for "Jesus Is Just Alright" and a slow-as-molasses-or-Fudge "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." For the latter, McGuinn contributes a much more inventive vocal than he did for Easy Rider (the film), and White's guitar spices and spruces everything up.
by Ed Leimbacher, December 27, 1969
Tracks
1. Ballad Of Easy Rider (Roger McGuinn, Bob Dylan) - 2:07
2. Fido (John York) - 2:44
3. Oil In My Lamp (Traditional) - 3:17
4. Tulsa County (Pamela Polland) - 2:53
5. Jack Tarr The Sailor (Traditional) - 3:35
6. Jesus Is Just Alright (Arthur Reynolds) - 2:14
7. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (Bob Dylan) - 4:57
8. There Must Be Someone (I Can Turn To) (Vern Gosdin, Cathy Gosdin, Rex Gosdin) - 3:34
9. Gunga Din (Gene Parsons) - 3:06
10.Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos) (Woody Guthrie, Martin Hoffman) - 3:50
11.Armstrong, Aldrin And Collins (Zeke Manners, Scott Seely) - 1:45
12.Ballad Of Easy Rider (Roger McGuinn, Bob Dylan) - 1:44
13.Oil In My Lamp (Traditional) - 3:16
14.Wasn't Born To Follow (Gerry Goffin, Carole King) - 2:06
15.Jesus Is Just Alright (Arthur Reynolds) - 2:14
16.It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (Bob Dylan) - 5:00
17.Ballad Of Easy Rider (Roger McGuinn, Bob Dylan) - 2:30
18.Oil In My Lamp (Traditional) - 2:05
19.Build It Up (Clarence White, Gene Parsons) - 2:39
20.Way Behind The Sun (Traditional) - 3:00
21.Fiddler A Dram (Traditional) - 3:15
22.Tulsa County (Pamela Polland) - 3:42
23.Mae Jean Goes To Hollywood (Jackson Browne) - 2:48
24.Fido (John York) - 2:52
25.Ballad Of Easy Rider (Roger McGuinn, Bob Dylan) - 1:39
Bonus Tracks 12-25
The Byrds
*Roger McGuinn - Guitar, Vocals, Moog Synthesizer, Banjo
*Clarence White - Lead Guitar, Vocals
*John York - Electric Bass, Vocals
*Gene Parsons - Drums, Guitar, Banjo, Vocals Guests
*Byron Berline - Fiddle
*Glen D. Hardin - Organ
*Terry Melcher - Vocals
